Vulcan

Modernizing how the Department of Defense discovers innovation

Vulcan is an innovation platform built for Cylitix with sponsorship from the Department of Defense. It modernizes the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) process — how agencies like SOCOM issue calls for capabilities and how commercial-sector innovators respond with proposals and technical demonstrations.

The platform sits at the center of the deep tech pipeline, connecting government needs with commercial innovation in a structured, searchable, and evaluable way.

Building structured calls for innovation

Government program managers create calls through a multi-step authoring flow. The form builder supports conditional logic, branching, and custom question types — from technical focus areas to cost estimates and milestone timelines. Skip logic lets authors create adaptive submission forms that route innovators through relevant sections based on their domain.

Flexible data collection for complex submissions

The platform supports a range of question types tailored to defense innovation evaluation — from ROM cost estimates and milestone timelines to technical capability assessments. Each question type is configurable with validation rules, optional fields, and rich text context.

Managing collaboration across agencies

Calls involve multiple stakeholders across different government organizations. The access control system lets program managers invite editors, set visibility permissions, and manage who can view and modify call details — supporting the complex organizational dynamics of defense procurement.