ARCHIVE - Previous Security Rapid Impact Competition Information
Updated 23 April 2024
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1. Security Rapid Impact
Suppliers may submit proposals into the Security Rapid Impact section which address any security challenge in line with the following requirements.
Security Rapid Impact Innovations are viewed as those which will deliver a technology model or prototype demonstration at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 or 7. This demonstration should be at a limited scale and in the context or environment in which it is expected that the solution would be used. Your project should have a realistic prospect of achieving an impact within a 3 year time frame from the completion of the project. The project should include all of the activities that are required to provide this limited demonstration, including research and development and/or testing and trialling.
No funding limit is specified, however we would typically expect to fund bids between £100K - £350K. Proposals that demonstrate value for money will be viewed favourably. Please see examples of previous funded work here. Your project, including any Testing and Trialling, must complete by March 2025.
Proposals will only be funded if there is a strong security (or security and defence) user requirement and capability need for the idea. Proposals could be pre-sifted from the competition prior to full assessment if security user need is not explained.
Security Rapid Impact proposals are contracted under the Innovation Standard Contract. Please review the DASA terms and conditions before submitting your proposal.
We are currently seeking ideas relating to any aspect of the UK security sector. Details below are a non-exhaustive list which provide additional information regarding the strategies and business plans of security departments and agencies to help inform innovators ideas.
Law Enforcement and Border Security
- Home Office Areas of Research Interest
- Counter Terrorism Strategy (CONTEST)
- 2025 Border Force Strategy
- Police Science & Technology Strategy
- National Strategic Threat Assessment for Serious & Organised Crime
- National Security Venture Capital investment priorities
- Law Enforcement and Border Security
Transport Security
- Department for Transport Areas of Research Interest
- Maritime Security Strategy
- Maritime and Coastguard Business Plan
- Land Transport Security Strategy
- Aviation Sector Strategy
Protective Security
- Advice and Guidance to implementing protective security measures
- CBRN decontamination
- NPSA research requirements
Criminal Justice
Please note, all work, including Testing and Trialling, must complete by March 2025, as such we provide the following information for maximum proposal duration submitted into each cycle of the security open call:
FY23/24 Cycle 4: 11 month projects
FY23/24 Cycle 5: 8 month projects
Read the DASA terms and conditions
Read the assessment process and criteria
2. Innovation Outline
For the Security Rapid Impact Competition a submitted Innovation Outline is required prior to full proposal submission, through our submission service. The Innovation Outline will enable Security departments and agencies to indicate an interest in the idea to ensure that innovators submit proposals for desirable concepts.
You should note the following guidance when you submit an Innovation Outline:
- The Innovation Outline should be a brief overview of your innovation in 500 words. You do not need to include all the information required for a full proposal
- Submissions should be made online by registering for our submission service and submitting an “Innovation Outline ”
- You will need to identify the current Technology Readiness Level of your innovation. Guidance on this can be found here
- There is no need to fully cost your idea at this stage
- By submitting an Innovation Outline, you are agreeing to the content being shared with partners across government to assess suitability for a full DASA proposal submission
We will aim for the Innovation Partner to contact you to acknowledge and discuss your idea within 10 working days of your Innovation Outline submission. Once the Innovation Partner has done all they can with you, they will advise you whether your idea is suitable for DASA funding or whether your idea is better suited to alternative routes of funding or support.
3. Testing and Trialling
Your project can also include a further priced option for a Testing and Trialling phase or can be comprised of Testing and Trialling only. This aims to allow you to gather further data from an operational environment and refine the innovation, trialling its suitability to meet end user’s needs.
The Testing and Trialling phase should be outlined within the full proposal under the ‘Testing and Trialling’ section and should include approximate timings, deliverables and maximum total costs. Please include any travel and subsistence as well as costs from third party sites such as airports, other national infrastructure or publically accessible location operators. Note, costings for Testing and Trialling should not be inserted into the ‘Finance’ and ‘Delivery Schedule’ sections of the proposal. If you do not wish to include a Testing and Trialling phase, please add ‘N/A’ to the ‘Testing and Trialling’ section on your submission.
An Option Condition between Demonstration and the Testing and Trialling phase will be included in any resultant Contracts awarded and the Authority will be under no obligation to exercise this option. We may cease any further participation if demonstrations (following the development phase) do not meet expectations.
Security Rapid Impact proposals are contracted under the Innovation Standard Contract. Please review the DASA terms and conditions before submitting your proposal.
4. Security Exploitation
Suppliers funded through the Security Rapid Impact competition can access a range of services provided through the DASA Security Partnerships and Impact team that are designed to help suppliers consider how they might maximise the potential for their innovation to develop into a procurable capability that could enter the security market.
- Exploitation Plan:
We encourage you to develop your Exploitation Plan that ensures that you have started to identify your route to market, confirming and helping firm up plans for how you will test & trial your innovation in a relevant context.
- Business Mentoring:
Where appropriate, we can support your consideration of business growth aspects so that you can develop your organisation into a viable company that is attractive to investors, supply chain partners and buyers - ensuring both the innovation and the organisation supplying it is market ready
- Exploitation Dashboard:
Data driven reporting that identifies where a collaborative approach from Government, private sector buyers or supply chain partners could help you formulate and optimise your route to the security market.
- Exploitation Pathway Review:
Is a regular internal review meeting scheduled between DASA and Government colleagues to review the Exploitation Dashboard across the programme of work. This keeps relevant security departments and users up to date on progress with your exploitation activity and facilitates a strong collaborative approach in tackling any barriers.
- Market Entry Guidance:
Can be provided to ensure you have the opportunity to develop a suitable level of understanding about the market you are aiming to enter in terms of the market segments procurement profile, any accreditation you may need to achieve or other barriers to entry which helps develop your ‘go to market’ plan for addressable market segments
- Business to Business (B2B) Brokering:
Where your route to market involves the supply chain or private sector operators of security infrastructure, we can help you meet a range of potential partners
- Pitch Training:
Can be provided, where appropriate, to aid translation of your innovation into terms that will have impact with the operational user and buyer, honing the focus to a snappy presentation that emphasises the value of the outcome of the innovation
- Open Call Innovation Showcase:
We can help you develop new relationships through providing a platform to showcase your innovation to potential users and buyers, typically when the innovation has developed to TRL 6, and often after Pitch Training.
- Investment Showcase:
If you have indicated within your Exploitation Plan that you are keen to seek third party investment to support the scale up of your innovation, you are invited to apply to pitch to Venture Capital investors. We work closely with the new Defence and Security Seed Fund and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF)
- Export Ready:
DASA can facilitate your access to the Department for International Trade’s Defence and Security Export team to ensure that any international market requirements are considered early in the development of your idea.
- Annual Security Showcase:
This event provides a platform for innovations funded through DASA which may meet security user challenges and includes defence funded innovations with potential for cross-sector application