Guidance

Open Call Innovation Focus Areas

Updated 28 October 2020

What are innovation focus areas?

Whilst the Open Call welcomes a wide range of innovative ideas to solve problems faced by our defence and security customers, DASA is keen to share insight on specific topics of interest. Innovative solutions for any innovation focus area should be channelled via the Open Call for Innovation.

Each innovation focus area has a unique identifier to help us ensure that your innovation is seen by the appropriate parts of Government. You will be able to choose this identifier when you submit your bid and should use it in all communications with DASA.

This page will be changed as new innovation focus areas are added, or old ones deleted or amended, in response to the evolving needs of our defence and security stakeholders. It is therefore recommended that you set up an alert for this page so you are aware of when such changes are made.

Sign up for alerts

Quantum Augmented Position, Navigation and Timing Sensing Capability

Unique Identifier IFA025

The UK defence and security sector has demanding requirements for accurate and resilient Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT). When Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are absent, denied, degraded or unreliable, a platform’s (specific vehicles, structures or facilities which host and use equipment that has a particular military or intelligence task needed in the field) Inertial Navigation System (INS) will drift; PNT uncertainty will grow, and mission success may be compromised. As the future operational environment becomes increasingly congested, cluttered, contested, connected and constrained, advances in current navigation technologies will be required to avoid mission failure.

It is envisaged that a route to a robust and enduring PNT solution will involve advancements in complementary PNT technology and/or augmentation of current INS with advanced next generation quantum sensing capability. The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is currently investigating the challenges posed when integrating and operating the next generation of quantum PNT sensing technologies in harsh and restrictive environments.

As a result of this ongoing investigation, we are seeking Quantum Augmented Position, Navigation and Timing Sensing Capability proposals that reduce reliance on Global Navigation Satellite Systems.

The total funding available for this IFA is anticipated to be at least £600k. Individual proposals are expected to be in the range £100-£150K.

Projects will be of approx. 6-9 months in length, (needing to complete by March 2022) will deliver from Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 2 to approx. TRL 4 and will provide evidence of advancing/enhanced capability over a 5-year timeframe for one or both of the below:

• advancing technological sensing performance
• enhanced environmental operational capability

Proposals must include:

• a background to current work and clear explanation and evidence around how it will aim to advance technological sensing performance and/ or environmental operational capability
• details around how the project will provide evidence and demonstrate the above (via a technology prototype, corroborated theoretical modelling and/or simulation)
• details around how a realistic technical comparison with current state-of-the-art commercially available solutions will be carried out
• details around how the ESL and SWaP Matrix will be utilised

We are not seeking proposals that:

• provide solutions which are already commercial products
• literature reviews

Find out more about how to apply

Contact a DASA Innovation Partner if you have an idea but are not sure if it is what we are looking for

Submit a proposal

Integrate Information and Physical Activity Across all Domains

Unique Identifier IFA020

Our Armed Forces have a requirement to be better integrated: with each other, with other government departments and with new and existing international allies and partners. Integration will enable units to work together harmoniously to deliver winning impact across several domains; sea, land, air, space, and cyber.

Communication capabilities underpin all aspects of modern military operations as they allow multiple operators to coordinate in order to maximise their combined effectiveness. Ultimately, all communications are vulnerable to adversary disruption which introduces significant operational risk.

We are seeking proposals which provide field communication capabilities that are resistant to attack, but continue to perform if degraded and are secure. We seek novel ideas that could be used by the Armed Forces to do one, or several, of the below:

• Manage significant volumes of data from remote or autonomous systems
• Information services that integrate formatted or unformatted data
• Collaborative data sharing internationally with classified information

All proposals should be created with the aim of increasing our ability to orchestrate activity, provide protection to military personnel and their equipment and in doing so, deter hostile action by our adversaries.

Find out more about how to apply

Contact a DASA Innovation Partner if you have an idea but are not sure if it is what we are looking for

Submit a proposal

Delivering Agile Command and Control

Unique Identifier IFA021

Mission Command is a style of command historically used by the UK Armed Forces to plan and orchestrate operations effectively to achieve desired outcomes. Mission Command is essential to achieving the adaptability required to respond quickly to the complexity in the modern environment, allows delegation and operational awareness across all levels of seniority, and enables personnel to carry out missions with the maximum freedom of action.

In order to achieve a more agile Command and Control process we are looking for proposals which promote a shift from more traditional chains of command to more dynamic, lateral networks, with greater delegation of authority and allow exploitation of relevant information at speed.

We seek novel ideas that could be used by the UK Armed Forces to do one, or several, of the below:

• Technology based data analysis e.g. use of machine learning
• Collaboration between human and technology based decision making processes
• Systems and processes to analyse and visualise real-time data
• Merging in-house and commercially available information services to establish situational awareness

All proposals should be created with the aim of transforming military capabilities to be information centric, which will enable future forces and platforms to be designed around an information architecture to enable widespread access to and sharing of information.

Find out more about how to apply

Contact a DASA Innovation Partner if you have an idea but are not sure if it is what we are looking for

Submit a proposal

Operate and Deliver Effects in Contested Domains

Unique Identifier IFA022

UK Armed Forces currently face heavily contested environments across the air, land, sea, and particularly the space and cyber domains, which is of significant threat to the security of our information and could lead to disruption in the use of our space-based capabilities.

Freedom to use our information networks and the electromagnetic spectrum is essential as this is the medium for communication between forces during operations and for our most effective sensors. These mediums can be used by adversaries as a source of information and can also leave us at a tactical disadvantage were they to be disrupted or disabled.

Proposals should consider we need to be robust and resilient and have the ability to disrupt/degrade adversary capabilities. We seek novel ideas which could be used by the UK Armed Forces to do one, or several, of the below:

• Communicate and synchronise activities in contested environments
• Monitor contested environments
• Manufacture methods and design concepts to deliver alternate explosive/electromagnetic/chemical effects and protection from these effects
• Manage fleets of remote or autonomous systems and use these systems to undertake tasks normally completed by human operators

Find out more about how to apply

Contact a DASA Innovation Partner if you have an idea but are not sure if it is what we are looking for

Submit a proposal

Defence People – Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Unique Identifier IFA023

In the current environment it is increasingly important to ensure we have access to people with the skills, knowledge and experience to exploit information and allow us to adopt cutting edge technologies. This will involve a collaborative approach where we work with other parties, be it other government departments, academia, industry or internationally to ensure we have Suitably Qualified and Experienced Personnel (SQEP) across science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

We are seeking proposals which exploit novel contracts and employment models and consider that individuals may need to learn new skills many times in their careers.

We seek novel ideas which could be used by UK Defence to do one, or several, of the below:

• Attract and retain SQEP with niche specialities and technical skills.
• Tracking and managing important skillsets across the workforce
• Provide technologies/services and other opportunities to improve welfare standards, workforce health and wellbeing
• Provide alternative approaches to contracting or seconding specialist staff
• Identify and collaborate with organisations with experience in the above areas
• Suggest novel approaches to improve the sharing and assimilation of knowledge across organisational boundaries, whilst respecting intellectual properties considerations

All proposals should consider the use of simulation to personalise training, maximise human potential and create realistic operational environments.

Find out more about how to apply

Contact a DASA Innovation Partner if you have an idea but are not sure if it is what we are looking for

Submit a proposal

Simulating Future Battlespace Complexity

Unique Identifier IFA024

Current live exercises cannot represent many modern offensive and defensive systems and the anticipated complexity of the battlefield. Using live platforms also places a demand on scarce resources and implies a financial and environmental cost through the use of fuel and other consumables.

We must therefore endeavour to create more effective training environments through the use of simulation and synthetic environments which will enable more frequent training, greater challenge and greater availability. There is a requirement to work with civil partners to pursue technologies and approaches to training within a simulated environment that is compatible with the constraints of our budgets, training facilities and legislation.

We seek novel ideas that can be used by UK Defence to do one, or several, of the below:

• Apply procedures and solutions that provide effective training and evaluation capabilities
• Integration and fusion of data from, and between, distributed training and experimentation systems
• Provide training for operators to perform in complex or high stress environments
• Adoption of Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality into training
• Capture and exploitation of performance information collected during training

All proposals should be created with the aim of enabling faster insertion of new capability and must inform and be informed by wargames and simulations investigating emerging threats.

Find out more about how to apply

Contact a DASA Innovation Partner if you have an idea but are not sure if it is what we are looking for

Submit a proposal

Reduced-Burden Area Biosurveillance

Closing at the end of Cycle 4 on 3rd December 2020

Unique Identifier IFA018

Biosurveillance enables us to more rapidly detect Biological Warfare Agent (BWAs) incidents and helps to reduce the potential impact by enabling decision makers to develop the best course of action for deployment of medical countermeasures and other protective measures.

We are looking to identify technologies to provide static detection at sentry points or to be deployed as a networked system that could be analogous to the size and function of the Man-portable Chemical Agent Detector (MCAD) or GID3. Solutions should be capable of providing biosurveillance capability to fixed bases with good infrastructure, e.g. Main Operating Bases (MOB) and Sea Port of Disembarkation (SPOD), as well as forward locations with lesser infrastructure e.g. Forward Operating Bases (FOB).

Our end goal is to create an automated all-in-one detection system with integrated aerosol collection, sample processing and identification in as small a system as possible. We are therefore looking for projects which will either develop components (e.g. aerosol collection, sample processing or identification) which could be eventually integrated into a system, or integrate pre-existing components into an all-in-one system. Because the final system needs to provide high confidence outputs in order to support rapid decision making, we are not interested in options based on generic detection technologies (e.g. fluorescence, LIDAR etc). We need the solution to be able to provide specific detection of individual threat agents.

When describing your idea, please use the key performance metrics for the technology options including burden (e.g. size, weight, power, and minimal consumable requirement), timeliness (speed of response), threat agent coverage (including different threat modes that could be tuned according to adversity or endemic threat), throughput, sensitivity, specificity and confidence level(s).

Find out more about how to apply

Contact a DASA Innovation Partner if you have an idea but are not sure if it is what we are looking for

Submit a proposal