Notice

Competition document: revolutionise the human information relationship for Defence

Updated 10 August 2017

1. Revolutionise the human information relationship for Defence

This Defence and Security Accelerator (the Accelerator) themed competition seeks new technologies, processes and ways of operating to improve Defence staff’s ability to analyse and exploit data to inform decision-making. This competition will cover 3 challenge areas:

Challenge 1: allowing rapid and automated integration of new sensors

Challenge 2: free up personnel by the innovative use of machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) for military advantage

Challenge 3: make effective use of operator cognitive capacity, particularly by human-machine teaming

The competition will be briefed at the Defence and Security Accelerator Innovation Network event on 23 February 2017 and at a webinar on 27 February 2017.

Phase 1 proposals are now invited and must be received by no later than 12 noon on 21 March 2017. Your proposal must be submitted online via the Accelerator Submission Service.

To achieve greater pace while providing the opportunity for smaller companies and low maturity solutions to participate we will be trialling a twin track approach for funding against the challenges described within this competition. This approach is being taken as we want to be able to pull through deliverable solutions to our challenges faster and more effectively than we have been able to do so far. We are offerring a fast track which compresses the competition time to achieve this and also to provide opportunity to attend and demonstrate at a military exercise in front of an audience of senior military stakeholders.

Each track will be a two-phase competition to nurture and mature successful proposals.

	Phase 1	Phase 2
Fast track	Project duration 3 months - 19 May to 13 September 2017	Project duration 6 months - 31 October 2017 to 1 May 2018
Standard track	Project duration 6 months - 19 May 2017 to 15 December 2017	Project duration 12 months - 8 March 2018 to 7 March 2019

Both tracks follow matching processes, but the fast track has a compressed timescale to allow proposals, where appropriate, to be matured rapidly to support potential exploitation.
Up to £6 million funding is available in total across both phases for this competition.

You must identify which of the tracks is appropriate for your proposal as each will appear as a separate competition route on the Accelerator Submission Service.

There is further information about the twin track approach in the competition process section of this competition document.

In order to understand the scope of the competition, potential proposers should read all 3 of the technical challenges, including the additional information provided for each.

Although we specify that you must submit proposals against a single challenge, proposals may provide solutions to multiple issues across the challenges, with varying levels of hand-off between autonomy and human elements.

2. Competition scope

This Accelerator competition will address the Defence Challenge for Innovation: Understanding and taking effective decisions in the Information Age, to ensure Defence leaders have access to the best information possible to inform understanding of critical issues and enable decision making that outpaces our adversaries. MOD uses a broad range of sensor platforms, and continues to invest in developing and adding to this. The significant growth in volume and complexity of data available from these sensors and other information sources is a real problem for operators and military decision makers.

Sensors produce intelligence in many forms and this must be processed and combined with other sources of information to become useful for Defence. Military operators and analysts require high levels of training to carry out these complex and critical tasks. If the MOD is to get the most out of its people and systems, it must increase their ability to analyse and utilise data to make informed, effective and timely decisions more effectively. So there is a need to revolutionise the relationship between humans and information.

This competition is focused on improving the human information relationship across Defence, from sensing to data processing to sense-making and decision making, all with the objective of improving the capability. We want proposals to develop solutions that effectively combine the strengths, and avoid the weaknesses, of each.

We want proposals that offer new concepts that require development to a proof-of-concept demonstration, or mature commercial solutions, already in use by markets other than Defence, that will require development to operate and integrate into existing military systems and operating practices.

Ideally, we want to progress beyond collaborative human-machine sensemaking, to develop approaches that might also enable collaborative decision making and intelligence analysis to support planning activities, plan refinement and mission execution. Ultimately we want humans and technology to be effective parts of the same team with technology providing personal assistance.

The problem space has been broken down into separate challenge areas. This does not mean that we believe that solutions to individual challenge areas will solve the whole problem. We anticipate that the true benefits will only be shown by a system which integrates automation/autonomy with human capabilities with varying balances of autonomy versus human activity, dependent on the nature of the task, the time available and the scale of the available data.

2.1 Here’s an example of an innovation scenario within the context of the competition:

Imagine operating in a maritime setting where multiple threats are expected; fast in-shore attack craft are a threat to vessels, enemy divers could lurk under the surface and air platforms are an omni-present threat. To counter the myriad of threats, UK Defence’s ambition is to deploy a network of data collection assets scanning land, sea surface and sub-surface to detect the activity of civil, friendly, neutral and adversary forces. Sensors to enable this surveillance may include: visual sensors, electronic surveillance, radar and sonar plus other data sources such as Automatic Identification Systems and Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast and a mix of static or autonomous nodes. It is expected that these sensors will be comprised from the following:

• UK owned military surveillance assets
• information sources from coalition allies and cooperative nations
• rapidly procured commercial technology (for example quadcopters/submersibles)

The technology would require rapid integration and would generate considerable quantities of multi-sensor data that would need to be analysed. In such a context, without automated assistance the available data (including integration and exploitation) will overwhelm operator capacity. The littoral environment would be especially complex due to the activity of the variety of actors and where objects will be difficult to categorise and behaviours and intent are very challenging to discern.

3. Technology challenges

The challenge areas that we have selected to address the problem space are:

3.1 Challenge 1: allowing rapid and automated integration of new sensors

Military commanders, working at pace in Information-Age operations, need to be able to access and use a range of sensors, some of which are unknown prior to an operation. This could be a situation where newly available sensors (for example, off the shelf products or equipment from allies or host nations) need to be quickly adopted and rapidly integrated with current systems for military use. These could be unknown formats, with a need to process and fuse data automatically to provide the critical information the commanders need at the lowest cognitive burden. Given the scale, diversity and complexity of this mix of sensor information the requirement for automation of integration, processing and sensor management is critical.

What we are interested in for Challenge 1:

• integration of raw data sensors
• integration of intelligent information sources
• processing
• fusion
• autonomous sensor management

For Challenge 1, we’re particularly interested in proposals that provide:

• solutions to solve one aspect of the challenge across a broad range of input data types which are scalable as the number of sensors and targets increase
• solutions which work in real (or near-real) time
• solutions which show cognisance of the Dstl/Innovate UK funded project SAPIENT
• solutions that show strong linkages to Challenges 2 and 3

For Challenge 1, we are not interested in:

• mechanisms to enable non-cooperative access to collection assets; such as access to equipment that is not owned or controlled by UK Defence or cooperating parties
• solutions where the number of sensors is limited
• distributed architectures. This challenge has assumed a single integrating system and a centralised architecture

More information is provided to help you understand the requirement for Challenge 1.

3.2 Challenge 2: free up personnel by the innovative use of machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) for military advantage

We want to use AI technologies to develop a greater understanding of all available data sources, and more effectively exploit the increased volume and type of data that is expected. This data may come from many different sources, including sensor data, intelligence reporting, and open source media feeds.

Significant manpower is currently needed to manually process and analyse data, which delays effective decision making. AI technologies have already demonstrated benefits in other domains for discrete information processing tasks such as image classification and face recognition, displaying better than human accuracy in some cases. We want proposals to explore the application of technologies for Defence, for example for automated identification and assessment of events in near-real time, to enable autonomous prioritisation (triage) and allow commanders to flag significant incidents.

What we are interested in for Challenge 2:

• automated activity classification
• cognitive computing
• combined human machine derived models
• predictive analytics

For Challenge 2, we’re particularly interested in proposals that provide:

• solutions for challenge areas within an overarching information processing architecture that conforms to open standards
• proposals which make good use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) where appropriate

For Challenge 2, we’re not interested in:

• machine-learning solutions which are highly optimised for input training data, leading to problems associated with over-fitting and failure when environmental parameters change

More information is provided to help you understand the requirement for Challenge 2.

3.3 Challenge 3: make effective use of operator cognitive capacity, particularly by human-machine teaming

People are overburdened by the complex, high workload environments in which they operate. We’re looking to use the strengths of these people and technology to address this challenge. To do this, considerable improvements need to be made in the interaction between people and systems. We want to progress beyond collaborative human-machine sense-making, to develop approaches that enable collaborative decision making and intelligence analysis to support planning activities and military operations. We want humans and technology to be part of the same team - this might be technology providing individual personal assistance, or multiple humans and machines operating as one.

What we are interested in for Challenge 3:

• memory
• reasoning
• teaming – relevant roles
• teaming – individual and team interaction

For Challenge 3, we’re particularly interested in proposals that provide:

• technical (software-based) solutions that address one or more of the challenge areas
• solutions that make better use of a machine operating as part of a human team, for example in improving ways of working
• technical solutions which implicitly obtain and take account of the overall team context that is essential for it to be part of a human machine team
• solutions that provide better training for human operators and analysts, and increase their productivity
• solutions that can be readily adopted by non-experts operating in conditions of high workload and stress
• ideas that can scale up
• approaches such as operator-driven, dynamic, exploratory visualisation
• solutions which take account of previously identified pitfalls with human-machine teaming solutions such as lack of trust, inability of technology to understand its limits of capability, uncertainty, unpredictability and bias without transparency to human team members

For Challenge 3, we are not interested in solutions that:

• replace the human or which require no human involvement
• are overly complex, require substantial training
• force people into unnatural ways of operating or behaving
• don’t include integration with other proposed solutions delivering information and processing capability
• use static information visualisation solutions

More information is provided to help you understand the requirement for Challenge 3.

4. Open systems and architectures

Proposals must use open systems and open architecture standards, to enable contribution of sub-components from a wide industrial base. This competition is based around a proposed target open architecture (figure 1).

Figure 1: End to end process for information to the decision makers. Challenges 1, 2 and 3 (yellow) shown in context of the target architecture.

Proposers will be expected to work closely with a MOD-led team to ensure compatibility with the architecture, and recommend changes where appropriate.

Proposals should adopt the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation of using JSON-LD, which is a JSON-based format to serialize Linked Data. The SAPIENT concept could form the framework for sensor integration.

Provision of data to support the phase 1 challenges are your responsibility and you are encouraged to make use of freely available data from other sources with proposals detailing the data utilised. Some MOD data sets are freely available and proposers are welcome to use these, for example:

• Kaggle
• Hydravision

Any intellectual property generated by the proposers as part of their contracts will be retained by the supplier under DEFCON 705 conditions. Where MOD leads any integration activity involving successful proposals, any intellectual property generated by that integration work (particularly IP relating to how to connect the system components from different suppliers) will be retained by MOD under DEFCON 703 conditions. You need to read and understand what this means.

5. What we want

For this competition we’re interested in novel ideas, as well as existing technologies which have been proven in other sectors that are modified and applied in a Defence context. These challenges can be met in part through technology, but also through successful integration of technology, people and processes.

We anticipate the true benefits will only be shown by a system which integrates automation/autonomy with human capabilities, dependent on the nature of the task, the time available and the scale of the available data.

We’re interested in proposals that consider a system approach, including the ability to integrate with other technologies in the system. However, we don’t expect you to be able to provide a whole solution at phase 1. Your proposed technology could offer part of, or an important step towards, the solution to the challenges.

You must use open source, not bespoke, systems architecture to maximise potential for integration with current systems.

We will also consider proposals that develop existing technologies in a novel way.

We encourage you to collaborate in any follow-on phase 2 projects along with the MOD-led team.

We recognise that your proposal could potentially fit into more than one of the challenge areas. However, when submitting your proposal, you need to nominate the most relevant challenge.

It’s important that your proposal describes your exploitation path and demonstrates how your idea may deliver a step-change in Defence capability.

At the end of each phase, successful projects will be asked to demonstrate their solution to gain support from important stakeholders, and explain their proposed approach to transition to a mature operational solution.

We are interested in proposals which consider scaling up solutions in phase 2. Proposers are encouraged to include, among other things, evidence of business support and on-going capability development and partnership beyond the funding provided by the Accelerator for this competition.

At the end of phase 2, the aim is to conduct a demonstration/experiment to generate the evidence to drive exploitation.

6. What we don’t want

For this competition we’re not interested in proposals for:

• consultancy
• paper-based studies or literature reviews
• solutions that don’t offer significant benefit to Defence
• proposals without clear detail on the metrics which will be used to define the success of the solution
• solutions which require unreasonable volumes of training data
• incremental improvements
• projects that only offer a written report – we’re looking for a practical demonstration
• projects that can’t demonstrate feasibility within the timescale

7. Competition process

7.1 Twin track approach

To achieve greater pace while providing the opportunity for smaller companies and low maturity solutions to participate we will be trialling a twin track approach for funding against the challenges described within this competition. As described earlier each track will use the same two-phase approach to nurture and mature successful proposals.

For phase 1 it’s more likely that we will fund a larger number of lower-value proposals than a small number of higher-value proposals. We recognise that to meet the accelerated timescale of the fast track route there may be a need to fund additional resources and obtain priority access to commercial facilities so we will offer different levels of phase 1 funding between the two routes:

• for the fast track route we will accept phase 1 proposals up to a value of £150,000
• for the standard track route we will accept phase 1 proposals up to a value of £100,000

Benefits of fast track for this competition:

• higher level of phase 1 funding
• shorter time to market
• potential access to additional demonstration opportunities

Benefits of standard track for this competition:

• additional development time to prove a novel concept
• time to form new collaborations to enhance a phase 2 proposal

The level of funding for phase 2 funding will be the same between the two tracks.

The twin tracks are separate entities. Proposals cannot be split across tracks, and only in exceptional circumstances, on a case by case basis, will successful proposals be considered for transfer between tracks.

Figure 2 – Competition timelines and opportunities

Both the standard track and fast track will have equivalent phase 1 and phase 2 elements as shown in Figure 2.

In phase 1 proposals will be de-risked and proposal development focused to achieve technology readiness level (TRL) 4. There will be an Accelerator phase 1 demonstration event (full details to be confirmed). All proposers awarded a phase 1 contract will be required to submit a phase 2 proposal using the Accelerator online submission service. The phase 2 competition is only open to winners of phase 1 funding.

In phase 2 successful bids will develop their proposals and be encouraged to form part of a MOD-led team focused on exploitation with an overall systems approach to increase the likelihood of exploitation from this competition. At the end of phase 2 there will be an event (full details to be confirmed) where projects will provide a demonstration of a proposal model or prototype in a relevant environment as determined by the MOD-led team.

The demonstration events at the end of each phase are to validate the success of the development undertaken and provide evidence that the proposal remains on track to deliver the high levels of value for the MOD envisaged at the outset. It will also support maximising exploitation through MOD, wider government and partner nations.

For phase 2, we’re keen to promote collaborative bids that integrate your proposal with others to deliver a final system capability to increase the exploitation potential of your solution. Therefore we will arrange a number of collaboration events during phase 1 that invite potential collaborators from within industry (including UK Defence Solutions Centre), academia and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have been identified as having the potential to increase the success of your phase 2 proposal.

7.2 Phase 2 proposals

Only winners from phase 1 are eligible to submit a phase 2 proposal. Phase 2 will be a closed competition only available to phase 1 winners.

7.3 Pitch Panels

In this competition the final selection of proposals to receive phase 2 funding will be made by a panel of senior individuals within MOD. Each phase 2 proposal will undergo assessment with the output scrutinised at a MOD chaired Decision Conference to select proposals worthy of funding. If you are selected by the Decision Conference you should be ready to pitch your phase 2 proposal, in confidence, to the panel at an event in London on the dates scheduled in the timeline for each track.

8. Supporting collaboration, engagement and exploitation

• collaboration events will take place where phase 1 and 2 winners will have the opportunity to meet other project teams that were successfully funded in phase 1 and other potential collaborators to start forming the collaborative community

• to support collaboration, applicants will be given the opportunity to engage with the Defence Growth Partnership through the UK Defence Solution Centreand Dual Use Technology Exploitation (DUTE) programme to explore how relationships, independent from the contract with the MOD, might be developed to maximise opportunities for defence exports or sales into adjacent markets

• you will also get to meet the MOD-led competition team, including potential contractors supporting exploitation. You will be expected to give a short presentation (just a few slides) describing your project and what you hope to achieve during development. This will include outlining expected phase 2 developments

Successful proposers will work through a technical partner designated to each supplier, enabling access to specific development opportunities and supporting the exploitation of successful innovation development. The MOD-led team will include personnel from MOD procurement bodies (Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), Information Systems and Services (ISS)), Commands, Dstl, and be supported by a contractor from defence industry operating under non-disclosure agreements, in order to enable participation in the final phase 2 demonstration event.

Successful proposals within the standard track will be invited to observe military exercises, while participants in the fast track will have the opportunity to attend and demonstrate to senior leaders.

This will better enable an understanding of the military context (as shown in the timeline in Figure 2).

Opportunities may include:

Exercise Joint Venture (JV) July 2017 and March 2018

The Joint Venture Exercise series, Defence’s capstone exercise, is conducted at RAF St Mawgan, Cornwall and typically features 1,200 personnel plus 400 supporting staff involving Navy, Army, Air Force supported by our Joint Force. The Exercise involves all facets of Defence, including other government departments, to exercise, test and review Defence’s operational headquarters planning/execution processes and procedures. The exercises include a section focussed on innovation called ’Headquarters of the Future’. This is an environment where new technologies, processes and methods can come together with military users to provide a hothouse for development. We would encourage proposals to observe and then participate in these events.

Exercise Information Warrior - March 2018

The First Sea Lord has set the Navy the challenge of driving Information Warfare into the heart of its operational mind-set no later than the large-scale Carrier Strike Group deployment in 2021. The Navy Information Warfare (IW) Programme is the vehicle being used to achieve this, which includes the Information Warrior series of exercises. Information Warrior exercises present the opportunity to develop and demonstrate IW Programme activities, as part of the biannual Joint Warrior exercises. Proposals are encouraged to participate in these events. In addition, the Navy has a sandbox environment to facilitate collaborative development of applications that operate on a open architecture combat system.

Defence planned projects may provide an opportunity to utilise the competition outputs. There are projects that are currently being delivered by Defence that could retrospectively harness and exploit the accelerator outputs, these include: an open source intelligence project and a geo-spatial intelligence project.

9. Innovation maturity

We use technology readiness levels (TRLs) to assess and describe innovation maturity. We understand that TRLs are not a perfect measure of innovation maturity however they are widely understood and used by industry and academia. We anticipate that TRLs will be an adequate means of assessing the maturity for all proposals received in response to this competition. For proposals that offer or include mature commercial solutions already in use in markets other than Defence, we recognise that the development required to provide a proof-of-concept demonstration for this competition may initially return the solution to a low-maturity status for phase 1 in terms of the TRL scale.

We recognise that innovation can only be said to be successful once it is brought into service. To maximise investment made in innovation, the MOD focuses its resource on pressing Defence problems, stops investing where value is no longer expected and follows through in implementing proven success. To achieve this, MOD can redirect relevant existing programmes to enable acquisition, make new money available where such programmes aren’t already in place and demonstrate its commitment by bringing solutions into operational settings for a trial period. Whichever route is taken will in part depend on developing plans, when this challenge completes, the nature of the solution and the particular military problem this helps to solve. Successfully completing the competition does not guarantee acquisition, this being in line with the MOD’s competition policies. It should however give confidence to MOD stakeholders that such innovative solutions are viable candidates, enabling their consideration in the acquisition process.

There are examples where the output from this competition could be included within future Defence equipment programmes as a part of delivering an agile command, control, communication, computing and intelligence capability to underpin future Defence activity. This requires appropriate information and evidence from the demonstrations/experiments that form part of this competition to influence planned projects and programmes.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• big data analytical and visualisation tools
• centralised defence intelligence knowledge base
• assured cyber and electromagnetic operating picture
• common systems to exploit sensor data from multiple current and future platforms

10. Important information

This competition will be supported by presentations given at the Accelerator Innovation Network event on 23 February 2017 in London and at a webinar on 27 February 2017.

Your proposal must be received by the Accelerator by 12 noon on Thursday 21 March 2017. Proposals must be submitted online via the Accelerator Submission Service.

• for the fast track route we will not accept phase 1 proposals over £150,000 or that are scheduled to deliver final reports and phase 2 proposals later than 13 September 2017
• for the standard track route we will not accept phase 1 proposals over £100,000 or that are scheduled to deliver final reports and phase 2 proposals later than 15 December 2017

The fast and the standard tracks are separate entities. Proposals cannot be split across tracks, and only in exceptional circumstances will successful proposals be considered for transfer between tracks.

Phase 1 proposals must focus on conducting a short, sharp, proof-of-concept phase with the fast track delivering by 13 Sep 2017 and the standard track delivering by 15 Dec 2017:

• in phase 1 of the fast track, it is likely that a larger number of lower-value proposals will be funded (£50,000 to £150,000), rather than a smaller number of high-value proposals
• for phase 1 of standard track we also expect to fund lower-value proposals of between (£50,000 and £100,000)

Total funding available for phase 1 and phase 2 of this competition is up to £6 million.

Full-rights outputs of funded work may be exposed to international government partners. This is to promote international collaboration and to give projects the best chance of exploitation through exposure to a larger scope of international aviation requirements. This will only be done under the protection of existing intergovernmental memoranda of understanding.

Read important information about how to submit a proposal to the Accelerator.

Proposals will be assessed by subject matter experts from the MOD, front-line military commands and Dstl. Read about how your proposal is assessed.

Successfully funded projects will be allocated a technical partner who will work with them to develop and refine the proposed approach in order to maximise the exploitation of the output within a military environment. They will provide the interface with MOD, front-line commands and the Dstl stakeholder community and be supported by the Accelerator Innovation Partners.

Deliverables from contracts will be made available to MOD, front-line commands, Dstl technical partners assigned to each proposal and subject to review by relevant government departments

10.1 What your proposal must include

Proposals must be submitted via the online Accelerator Submission Service and include all the information advised within the submission service guidelines.

In addition, specific to this competition, phase 1 proposals must include:

• an outline scoping for a follow-on phase 2 of up to 12 months duration, but the proposal should be clearly partitioned with a costed proof-of-concept phase 1 stage, which is the focus of this Accelerator themed competition
• costed participation in a one-day collaboration event in London
• costed participation in a one day demonstration event in London at the end of phase 1

11. Ethical considerations and The Regulation of Investigatory Power Act (2000)/Investigatory Powers Act 2016

11.1 MOD Research Ethics Committee

Due to the fact that this competition is asking for solutions which explicitly include human-machine interaction, there is a significant chance of proposed solutions requiring MOD ethical scrutiny, especially if human subjects are to be involved in any demonstrations, assessments and experiments.

All research involving human participation conducted or sponsored by any government department is subject to ethical review under procedures outlined in Joint Service Publication 536 ‘Ministry of Defence Policy for Research Involving Human Participants’, irrespective of any separate ethical procedures (eg from universities or other organisations). This ensures that acceptable ethical standards are met, upheld and recorded, adhering to nationally and internationally accepted principles and guidance.

The following definitions explain the areas of research that require approval:

clinical: conducting research on a human participant, including (but not limited to) administering substances, taking blood or urine samples, removing biological tissue, radiological investigations, or obtaining responses to an imposed stress or experimental situation

non-clinical: conducting research to collect data on an identifiable individual’s behaviour, either directly or indirectly (such as by questionnaire or observation) All proposals must declare if there are potential ethical issues.

Securing ethical approval through this process can take up to 3 months. In this Accelerator themed competition, phase 1 projects must be completed by 13 September 2017 for the fast track route and 15 December 2017 for the standard track route. Obtaining ethical approval could take your proposal beyond the timeline for completion of phase 1. We, therefore, recommend that you only include research in phase 1 that doesn’t require ethical approval. Work that might require ethical approval should be planned for future phases of work which have longer and more flexible timescales.

However, if you think that your phase 1 proposal may require ethical approval, please ensure that you adopt an approach in your submission as follows (noting that projects must still complete by 13 September 2017 for the fast track route and 15 December 2017 for the standard track route):

• milestone 1: gaining ethics approval for the project, including delivery of the research protocols (the protocol will need to be detailed by completing the ethics application form)

• milestone 2: proposed research that will be carried out subject to gaining ethics approval (optional phases to be formally invoked, where appropriate)

A contractual break point must be included after milestone 1.

Read more on the MOD Research Ethics Committee.

The requirement for ethical approval isn’t a barrier to funding; proposals are assessed on technical merit and potential for exploitation. Successful proposals will be supported through the ethical review process; however, an outline of your research methods must be included in your proposal to help this process.

11.2 The Regulation of Investigatory Power Act (2000)/Investigatory Powers Act 2016 considerations

The Regulation of Investigatory Power Act (RIPA)/Investigatory Powers Act 2016 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, regulating the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation, and covering the interception of communications. The Accelerator encourages all bidders to be mindful of legal and ethical considerations particularly where experiments may impact on privacy under Investigatory Powers legislation and obligations under the Data Protection Act. Your proposals must identify and minimise legal risk.

12. Dates

12.1 Fast track competition timeline

23 February 2017	Accelerator Innovation Network event
27 February 2017	Competition webinar
21 March 2017	Competition closes at 12 noon
27/28 April 2017	Decision conference
28 April 2017	Phase 1 winners notified
19 May 2017	Start of phase 1 contracts
31 May 2017	Feedback to unsuccessful phase 1 proposers released
07 June 2017	Collaboration event (location to be confirmed)
06 September 2017	Phase 1 proof of concept demonstration event
13 September 2017	Phase 1 completes and phase 2 bids submitted
12 October 2017	Phase 2 Decision Conference
16 October 2017	Phase 2 Pitch Panel
17 October 2017	Phase 2 winners notified
31 October 2017	Start of phase 2 contracts
10 November 2017	Feedback to unsuccessful phase 2 proposers released
15 November 2017	Phase 2 first collaboration event (location to be decided)
07 February 2018	Phase 2 second phase 2 collaboration event (location to be decided)
18 April 2018	Phase 2 stakeholder demonstration
01 May 2018	Phase 2 completes

12.2 Standard track competition timeline

23 February 2017	Accelerator Innovation Network event
27 February 2017	Competition webinar
21 March 2017	Competition closes at 12 noon
27/28 April 2017	Decision conference
28 April 2017	Phase 1 winners notified
19 May 2017	Start of phase 1 contracts
22 May 2017	Feedback to unsuccessful phase 1 proposers released
07 June 2017	Collaboration event (location to be confirmed)
22 November 2017	Phase 1 proof of concept demonstration event
15 December 2017	Phase 1 completes and phase 2 bids submitted
01/02 February 2018	Phase 2 Decision Conference
13/14 February 2018	Phase 2 Pitch Panel
15 February 2018	Phase 2 winners notified
08 March 2018	Start of phase 2 contracts
14 March 2018	Phase 2 first collaboration event (location to be decided)
09 October 2018	Phase 2 second collaboration event (location to be decided)
20 February 2019	Phase 2 stakeholder demonstration (location to be decided)
07 March 2019	Phase 2 completes

13. Queries and help

While you’re preparing your proposals, you can contact us if you have any questions about this competition.

Queries that are technical should be sent to challenge1@dstl.gov.uk and copied to accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.

Queries that are about the competition process, including commercial and intellectual property aspects, should be sent to accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.

Capacity to answer these queries is limited in terms of volume and scope. Queries should be limited to a few simple questions or, if provided with a short (few paragraphs) description of your proposal, the technical team will provide, without commitment or prejudice, broad yes/no answers. This query facility is not to be used for extensive technical discussions, detailed review of proposals or supporting the iterative development of ideas.

While all reasonable efforts will be made to answer queries, the Accelerator and Dstl reserves the right to impose management controls when higher than average volumes of queries/resource demands restrict fair access to all potential proposal submitters.