Funding to develop a new analytics platform for defence
The Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) is looking for prototype solutions to provide an unstructured and open-source data analytics platform for defence.
CDE is running this open-source big data insight competition on behalf of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) Information Systems and Services (ISS) organisation.
The total funding available for the first phase of this competition is £250,000. Up to £2 million will be available for phase 2, which will be awarded on a per-project basis to the most successful outputs of phase 1 funded projects.
The aim of the competition is to create an evolutionary new analytics platform for defence, in partnership with industry. The outputs of the competition will be used for the analysis of defence internal structured and unstructured data. Understanding more about defence’s internal information, documents, knowledge and interactions will enable MOD to streamline processes, collaborate more effectively, and share knowledge seamlessly.
Mike Stone, MOD’s Chief Digital and Information Officer, says: “Traditionally MOD has been cautious of adopting emerging and unproved technologies. However, we need to adopt these freely available capabilities and services now. I hope this CDE competition will encourage industry, and particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are delivering analytics and digital enablers, to help us develop a capability that will become an important part of defence transformation.”
The open-source big data insight competition is open now and will be briefed at the CDE Innovation Network event on 24 June 2015 in London. MOD’s Chief Digital Information Officer, Mike Stone, will introduce the competition.
Andy Nicholson, Head of CDE, says: “I’m pleased that the CDE mechanism is supporting Mike Stone in achieving his vision for MOD ISS. This competition is already generating lots of interest from SMEs.”
The competition closes on Thursday 13 August at 5pm. Proposals must be submitted through the CDE online portal.