The Transformational Convergence Technology Office (TCTO) places equal emphasis on capabilities and threats for today's and tomorrow’s warfighter. TCTO conducts systematic investigations of emerging trends, identifies the potential for disruptive convergence, and creates programs that involve interdisciplinary research leading to realistic demonstrations.

Research thrust areas include:

• Analysis and exploitation of complex networks, such as social networks, including concepts such as crowd-sourcing, communications, and quantitative social and behavioral sciences
• Engineered biosynthesis of materials and objects, including synthetic biology, and biosynthesis of chemicals and materials
• Machine intelligence, particularly as applied to intelligent autonomous ground robots and collaborative systems
• Resilient computing systems, in support of the above areas and including robust, evolvable, widely available, high-performance networks

TCTO seeks diverse approaches to innovation. It collaborates with the other DARPA program offices, in some cases acting as the recipient of significant emerging technologies and in other cases serving as a catalyst by identifying relevant new external technology trends. It applies novel methods to build communities inside and outside its programs, tapping into sources of innovation in social networks, student groups, and users/operators.