Notice

Competition: Tackling knife crime - Detecting steel-bladed knives

Published 1 November 2018

1. Introduction

This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition is seeking proposals for innovative technologies and approaches that help reduce knife crime in the UK through the identification of people carrying steel-bladed knives.

The competition has an initial £500k for Phase 1 to fund multiple proof of concept proposals at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 2 and above. Additional funding may be available for further phases to develop the technology to a higher TRL depending on the outputs from Phase 1.

We welcome proposals from sole suppliers, including from academic and industrial partners, as well as collaborative bids.

The competition closes at midday on 21 November 2018.

2. Competition Scope

2.1 Background

Although crime in general has fallen rapidly in the UK over the past 20 years, some types of violent crime recorded by the Police have increased. In 2017, knife crime rose by 20% across England and Wales when compared to 2015 figures, with a significant increase in fatal stabbings and serious injuries. Whilst this increase in knife crime is a complex problem with many influencing factors, the ability of the Police to determine if knives are being carried by people is one fundamental aspect to potentially reducing incidents. This is particularly challenging when knives are concealed and carried in public. The use of current detection systems is limited. UK Police Forces have implemented strategies to tackle the issue and the application of science and technology and other approaches must play an important role in tackling this threat. In April 2018, Government launched the Serious Violence Strategy, which aims to tackle knife crime and other forms of serious violence.

2.2 Scope

The Home Office is interested in solutions that can identify people carrying, overtly or covertly, a wide variety of steel-bladed knives in public open spaces, including in crowds and uncontrolled areas (where there is typically limited or no Police or security presence). There is a requirement to detect these knives:

• on the person, typically in the presence of other commonly carried benign metallic items (for example, keys, phones, coins, belts/buckles, watches, jewellery)
• carried in bags (for example, handbags, rucksacks) which may contain a variety of other metallic and non metallic items

For the purpose of this competition the focus will be on steel-bladed knives with a blade length greater than 7.62cm. This includes household kitchen knives and other knives designed specifically to cause serious harm or death.

We are only interested in steel-bladed knives, however research that also encompasses non metallic blades in addition to steel-bladed knives such as polymeric or ceramic will not be discounted.

We are interested in different approaches to address this challenge from specific detection technologies, through to advances in behavioural sciences.

Solutions that can contribute to the detection of steel-bladed knives being carried by individuals or groups will support the Police and other security personnel in their decision making process to ensure the appropriate operational response with the aim of ultimately reducing the number of casualties across the UK.

3. Competition Challenges

3.1 Challenges

There are four priority challenges identified for investment. These should not be viewed as rigid themes and they are not mutually exclusive. Your proposed solution must address at least one of these challenges, but we welcome solutions that address more than one.

Challenge 1: Screening people at pre-existing pinch-points

This challenge is focused on using pre-existing pinch points such as ticket barriers, escalators and doorways to provide opportunities to screen people as they pass through. The solution should be:

• safe for the people being screened and those operating the system
• rapid, and should not delay the person being screened
• unobtrusive and potentially covert
• easy to operate

Challenge 2: Screening freely moving people

This challenge is focused on screening people in busy areas where their movement is essentially unconstrained. This may range from situations where people mainly move in one or two directions (for example, a street, or the approach to a major venue/event) through to situations where people move in a myriad different directions (for example, a major railway station concourse). The solution should be:

• safe for the person being screened and those operating the system
• unobtrusive and potentially covert
• deployable indoors and outdoors under all ambient UK conditions
• easy to operate

Challenge 3: Screening of people’s behaviours in crowds

This challenge is focused on potential behavioural indicators of people in crowds in possession of a knife and/or with the intent to use a knife. The solution should:

• have a high degree of confidence in any positive/negative result obtained or provide the operator with an understanding of the confidence limitations
• identify ways confidence could be improved through later phases

Challenge 4: Training

This challenge is focused on how knowledge of carriage/concealment of knives and/or behavioural indicators of carriage/concealment of knives can be translated into training for Police officers and/or security personnel. The solution should:

• show how datasets can be captured and analysed
• show how patterns of behaviour indicate concealment or intent to use concealed weapons
• provide information on expected false positives and identification of alternative indicators that can be used to reinforce decision making and risk assessment

3.2 Clarification of what we want

We want innovative ideas to benefit Police and other users working in the UK security environment.

Your proposal should include evidence of:

• theoretical development, method advancement or proof of concept research which can demonstrate potential for translation to practical demonstration in any potential later phases
• clear demonstration of how the proposed work applies in a security context

3.3 Clarification of what we don’t want

For this competition we are not interested in proposals that:

• constitute consultancy, paper-based studies or literature reviews which just summarise the existing literature without any view of future innovation (which therefore cannot be extended into any potential further phases)
• do not offer significant benefit to the UK security capability
• are an identical resubmission of a previous bid to DASA without modification (this does not include ideas submitted as part of the ‘Knife Crime’ market survey call)
• offer demonstrations of off-the-shelf products requiring no experimental development (unless applied in a novel way to the challenge)
• offer no real long-term prospect of integration into security capabilities
• offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions
• introduce technology used in other sectors without any attempt to explain how it can be used in a security context in a novel way
• exploit existing technologies which just analyse or measure behavioural data and offer no new insights into how this data can be used for the purposes of tackling knife crime
• offer sourcing and accumulation of relevant behavioural data without applying any novel form of analysis

4. Exploitation

It is important that over the lifetime of DASA competitions ideas are matured and accelerated towards appropriate end-users to enhance capability. How long this takes will depend on the nature and starting point of the innovation. Early identification and appropriate engagement with potential end-users during the competition and subsequent phases are essential.

All proposals to DASA should articulate the expected development in TRL of the potential solution over the lifetime of the contract and how this relates to improved operational capability against the current known (or presumed) baseline. Your deliverables should be designed to evidence these aspects with the aim of making it as easy as possible for possible collaborators to identify the innovative elements of your proposal in order to consider routes for exploitation. DASA Innovation Partners are available to support you with defence and security context.

You may wish to include some of the following information, where known, to help the assessors understand your exploitation plans:

• the intended security users of your final product and whether you have previously engaged with them, their procurement arm or their research and development arm
• awareness of, and alignment to, any existing end-user procurement programmes
• the anticipated benefits (for example, in cost, time, improved capability) that your solution will provide to the user
• whether it is likely to be a standalone product or integrated with other technologies or platforms
• expected additional work required beyond the end of the contract to develop an operationally deployable commercial product (for example, ‘scaling up’ for manufacture, cyber security, integration with existing technologies, environmental operating conditions)
• additional future applications and wider markets for exploitation
• wider collaborations and networks you have already developed or any additional relationships you see as a requirement to support exploitation
• requirements for access to external assets, including Government Furnished Assets (GFA) - for example, information, equipment, materials and facilities
• how your product could be tested in a representative environment in any later phases of development
• any specific legal, ethical, commercial or regulatory considerations for exploitation

5. How to apply

Proposals for funding must be submitted by midday on 21 November 2018 via the DASA submission service for which you will be required to register.

The funding of £500k is expected to fund at least 5 proposals. Proposals must be less than £100k cost to DASA. Phase 1 contracts will be awarded for a duration of 6 months.

Additional funding for subsequent phases to increase TRL further towards exploitation may be made available depending on the output(s) of Phase 1.

Further guidance on submitting a proposal is available on the DASA website.

5.1 What your proposal must include

The proposal should focus on the Phase 1 requirements but must also include a brief outline of the next stages of work required for exploitation.

When submitting a proposal, you must complete all sections of the online form, including an appropriate level of technical information to allow assessment of the bid and a completed finances section.

A project plan with clear milestones and deliverables must also be provided. Deliverables must be well defined and designed to provide evidence of progress against the project plan and the end-point for this phase.

A resourcing plan must also be provided that identifies, where possible, the nationalities of those proposed Research Workers that you intend working on this phase. In the event of proposals being recommended for funding, the DASA reserves the right to undertake due diligence checks including the clearance of proposed Research Workers. Please note that this process will take as long as necessary and could take up to 6 weeks in some cases for non-UK nationals.

You must identify any ethical/legal/ regulatory factors within your proposal and how the associated risks will be managed, including break points in the project if approvals are not received. MODREC approvals can take up to 3 months therefore you should plan your work programme accordingly. Further details are available in the DASA guidance. If you are unsure if your proposal will need to apply for MODREC approval, then please contact DASA for further guidance.

In addition, requirements for access to GFA must be included in your proposal. DASA cannot guarantee that GFA will be available.

Completed proposals must comply with the financial limit for this competition which has an upper limit of £100k per proposal. Proposals will be rejected if the financial cost exceeds this capped level.

Proposals must include costed participation at the following two DASA events:

• a start-up event
• an end of project demonstration event

Failure to provide any of the above listed will automatically render your proposal non-compliant.

5.2 Public facing information

A brief abstract will be requested if the proposal is funded. This will be used by DASA and other government departments as appropriate, to describe the project and its intended outcomes and benefits. The abstract will be used at DASA events in relation to this competition and placed on the DASA website, along with your company information and generic contact details. It is the suppliers responsibility to ensure that they do not disclose any intellectual property.

5.3 How your proposal will be assessed

All proposals will be checked for compliance with the competition document and may be rejected before full assessment if they do not comply.

Only those proposals that demonstrate their compliance against the competition scope and DASA criteria will be taken forward to full assessment. Failure to achieve full compliance against the mandatory criteria will render your proposal non-compliant and will not be considered any further.

Mandatory Criteria
The proposal clearly and succinctly outlines how it meets the scope of the competition	Within scope (Pass) / Out of scope (Fail)
The proposal fully explains in all three sections of the DASA submission service how it meets the DASA criteria	Pass / Fail
The proposal clearly details a financial plan, a project plan and a resourcing plan to complete the work proposed in Phase 1	Pass / Fail
The proposal identifies the need (or not) for MODREC approval	Pass / Fail
The proposal identifies any GFA required for Phase 1	Pass / Fail
Maximum value of proposal does not exceed £100k	Pass / Fail
Unqualified Acceptance of the DASA Terms and Conditions of Contract	Pass / Fail

Proposals will then be assessed against the standard DASA assessment criteria by subject matter experts including Dstl, other government departments and front-line operational personnel. You will not have the opportunity to comment on assessors comments.

DASA reserves the right to disclose on a confidential basis any information it receives from bidders during the procurement process (including information identified by the bidder as Commercially Sensitive Information in accordance with the provisions of this competition) to any third party engaged by DASA for the specific purpose of evaluating or assisting DASA in the evaluation of the bidder’s proposal. In providing such information the bidder consents to such disclosure. Appropriate confidentiality agreements will be put in place.

Further guidance on how your proposal is assessed is available on the DASA website.

After assessment, proposals will be discussed internally at a Decision Conference where, based on the assessments, budget and wider strategic considerations, a decision will be made on the proposals that are recommended for funding.

Proposals that are unsuccessful will receive brief feedback after the Decision Conference.

5.4 Things you should know about DASA contracts

Please read the DASA terms and conditions which contain important information for suppliers. For this competition we will be using the Short Form Contract (SFC).

Funded projects will be allocated a Technical Partner as a technical point of contact. In addition, the DASA team will work with you to support delivery and exploitation.

We will use deliverables from DASA contracts in accordance with our rights detailed in the contract terms and conditions.

6. Phase 1 Dates

Competition open	1 November 2018
Competition closes	21 November 2018
Decision conference	December 2018
Contracting	Target by 31 January 2019 (maybe earlier if possible)

7. Help

Competition queries including on process, application, technical, commercial and intellectual property aspects should be sent to accelerator@dstl.gov.uk quoting the competition title.

While all reasonable efforts will be made to answer queries, DASA reserves the right to impose management controls if volumes of queries restrict fair access to all potential suppliers.