ONI - IPA/TITANS (Technology Innovation and Trusted Auxiliary for National Security)
Challenge ended
Description
The Department of Defense is facing a growing challenge: while dual-use innovation is essential to national security, federal agencies often lack the operationally fluent talent needed to translate emerging technology into field-ready capabilities. At the same time, thousands of transitioning service members and veterans exit active duty each year with mission experience and technical skills but no clear on-ramp into innovation roles. To address this, disconnect, One Nation Innovation (ONI) is launching a challenge to prototype a new category of mission-aligned workforce: veterans and university experts embedded as operational translators, transition accelerators, and field-informed contributors to dual-use innovation across academic, federal, and commercial environments. This trusted auxiliary workforce, known as TITANS (Technology Innovation and Trusted Auxiliary for National Security), will bridge the gap between technology and mission, accelerating transition while creating new public service pathways beyond the uniform. This challenge will leverage the Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970. Additional information on the act can be found at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/intergovernment-personnel-act/ This challenge will be executed under the ONIX Other Transactional Agreement (OTA), with ONI serving as the nonprofit intermediary for public-private partnership and acquisition support.
Overall Objective
The government seeks to prototype and evaluate the TITANS Auxiliary Innovation Workforce model, by leveraging the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, Universities and veterans into real-world innovation roles tied to DoD mission priorities. The goal is to validate a scalable, credentialed, and mission-impactful approach to embedding veterans as part of national security innovation ecosystems. This will leverage ONIX mechanisms, academic appointments, and interagency assignments to extend service through innovation.
Problem Statement
Current federal innovation structures lack agile, operationally grounded personnel to help translate, test, and transition emerging capabilities. This gap slows down fielding and prevents promising technologies from reaching the warfighter. Simultaneously, thousands of service members separate from the military each year with valuable skills but no structured way to contribute to national security innovation efforts. Without dedicated on-ramps, these veterans as well as University experts represent an underutilized strategic asset. The TITANS prototype aims to address this by activating veterans into scoped innovation roles across ONIX challenges, academic institutions, and interagency innovation efforts. These roles must function in diverse operational contexts including cyber, autonomy, logistics, and AI/ML and integrate into mission environments such as ODASD P&E initiatives, national research centers, and field experimentation efforts.