Why We Love Our Work

Government agencies – and the contractors who support their missions – are engines for innovation.

Across our portfolio, the Spire Team helps promote clients, programs, and initiatives that are literally changing the world.

Recent projects we're honored to support

60 Days To Stop a Pandemic

Starting in 2011, DARPA invested in development of mRNA-based medical countermeasures to protect our troops from infectious diseases while on deployment. When the COVID-19 pandemic broke, researchers pivoted to developing a scalable, adaptable, and rapid response platform capable of producing COVID vaccines at scale.

Image credit: Moderna/Vanderbilt

Transforming Pharmaceutical Testing

Using microfluidics, Draper connects 17 human organoids to replicate how drugs interact with organs as they move through the body. This biotechnology marvel will fundamentally change how drugs are tested – accelerating discovery, getting promising pharmaceuticals to market faster, and promoting more proactive testing for women and children.

From Pollution to Solution

DEVCOM ARL’s Army Research Office funded the development of a revolutionary technology for breaking down compostable plastics within a few weeks using only heat and water. This advance could solve waste management challenges at forward operating bases and power much-needed commercial solutions to plastic pollution.

Building a Federal Agency Capable of Medical Breakthroughs

ARPA-H was created in 2022 to augment medical research happening throughout the country by creating platforms to accelerate the creation of new diagnostics, treatment, and outcomes. ARPA-H seeks entirely new ways to tackle the hardest challenges in healthcare.

The Future of Food – Meals from Microbes

DARPA supports two groundbreaking programs to provide sustenance to warfighters in austere environments. The Cornucopia program seeks to enable food production on demand and on site using only air, water, and electricity. The ReSource program aims to turn military waste – including plastics – into oils, lubricants, and food.

Transforming Waste Into Wonder

Capra Biosciences is challenging the global petrochemical industry’s dependence on fossil fuels and other feedstocks that generate toxic pollutants. Using biofilms and a proprietary bioreactor technology, they can convert food waste and agricultural byproducts into useful chemicals – offsetting and even eliminating greenhouse emissions from traditional production.

Convenient Care for Military Families

MHS Video Connect is the Defense Health Agency’s web-based solution for accessible care. It empowers more than 9.6 million service members and their families worldwide to conveniently meet with military hospital or clinical care teams. Beneficiaries can use any internet-capable device – computer, tablet, or phone – to have a secure, live video appointment.

Protecting Our Shores

DARPA is developing hybrid reef-mimicking structures to protect civilian and military infrastructure and personnel by mitigating damage related to coastal flooding, erosion and storm surge. The system aims to be self-healing, keep pace with sea level rise over time, and attract native non-reef building organisms to help maintain a healthy, growing system. Using adaptive biology, the project will also improve coral and oyster resilience against disease and temperature stress.

Navigating without GPS: A Bird’s Eye View into the Future

DEVCOM ARL’s Army Research Office co-funded foundational research at the Universities of Oxford and Oldenburg that revealed the secret to the migratory patterns of birds: a protein in the retina that is sensitive to the Earth’s magnetic field. This finding could hold the key to future technologies for navigating autonomous and manned vehicles where GPS is unavailable.

Enabling Better Health Through Data

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is making it possible for health data to be electronically shared securely among providers, patients, and healthcare stakeholders. When everyone has the information they need – when and where they need it – individuals and communities can enjoy better health and greater wellbeing. And America will have a robust data foundation for improving diagnostics and disease prevention.

Guiding the Digital Healthcare Revolution

AHRQ’s Digital Healthcare Research Division funds research to transform digital healthcare through technologies that empower patients and improve care delivery. In 2021 alone, the agency pursued more than 100 projects that uncovered new ways to make technology work for patients, clinicians, and health systems.

Safeguarding Our Sailors and Naval Assets

Through its Cyber Ready initiative, the Navy Chief Information Office aims to fundamentally transform the entire Navy’s approach to cybersecurity from a compliance mindset to a model that follows a philosophy of readiness and currency. In August, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro published the Strategic Intent for Cyber Ready memorandum in support of the effort to achieve Cyber Ready, enabling acquisition speed and better defense of information.