Guidance

Market Exploration Document: Modelling and Monitoring Conflict Wounds

Published 12 August 2025

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is running a Market Exploration to explore research and technology development of relevance to the modelling of traumatic wounds and the monitoring of their progression.

1. Summary

On behalf of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) Defence Medical Services (DMS), DASA is running a Market Exploration to explore the current research environment and identify technologies that can model and monitor traumatic wounds. This will form part of a wider scoping effort under the newly funded Conflict Wound Research Network (CWRN)^{[footnote 1]} and will give a better understanding of market capability in this space to inform future activities under the network, including potential funding opportunities.

Please note that this request for information is not a commitment to subsequently launch a formal DASA competition.

2. Background

Conflict has always involved a risk of personnel suffering injury. Wounds sustained in conflict are commonly multifaceted and prone to additional complications, making them difficult to manage and treat, often resulting in significant morbidity.^{[footnote 2]}  

The type of weaponry used to date has often resulted in wounding via kinetic and thermal effect to skin, muscle and bone.^{[footnote 2]} These wounds, and the environments in which they are initially managed, are distinct from those encountered in civilian medicine: the wounds themselves are likely to be larger in size with higher levels of complex infection and other contamination.^{[footnote 3]} There is also an indication that they are prone to further, progressive tissue loss after the initial insult.^{[footnote 4]} The environment in which care is delivered is likely to be austere, sometimes extreme, with long delays before patients can be evacuated to full healthcare facilities.^{[footnote 5]}

Despite advances in surgical and medical practices and capability, conflict wounds remain challenging to manage from point of wounding, throughout the healing and reconstruction process, and into scar management and return to function. Greater understanding of effective early management of traumatic wounds and the ability to monitor their progression is needed. This is likely to become increasingly pertinent should patients be held for longer before being transferred to higher levels of care.

Research to better understand, model and treat conflict wounds will require a multi-disciplinary effort; successful mitigations will require collaboration between different clinical specialties and scientists in disciplines from physics, engineering, data science, biology, physiology and microbiology.

This market exploration will provide MOD with insight into the current state of the art in the modelling and monitoring of traumatic wounds. This will help shape the activity of the wider CWRN, which has been recently established to support, cohere and undertake research to improve the management and treatment of conflict wounds.  

3. What we want

We are interested in innovative technical solutions that could be used to model or monitor conflict wounds.

3.1 Model

• Innovative modelling of injury to skin, muscle or bone, or any combination of these.
  • This does not have to be via a militarily relevant mechanism but models encompassing physical or thermal injury are of particular interest.
  • Models could be in silico, in vitro, ex vivo or in vivo but should encompass an element of novel approach (i.e. beyond that which has already been extensively published). Any description of modelling capability must include a statement detailing how the 3Rs^{[footnote 6]} have been considered and / or how the model contributes to these aims.
  • Models of mixed injurious mechanism are of particular interest, for example physical wounding / burns combined with infection, wounding combined with other physiological insult, co-infection of different pathogens, or infection with other contamination.
  • Models of mixed cell type (any combination of skin, muscle, or bone) are also of interest to explore the molecular and cellular cross-talk between skin, muscle and bone after injury and through successful healing and regeneration, or deleterious wound progression and scarring.
• Underpinning methodology for modelling different biological or bio-mimetic systems, including injury, provided theoretical or empirical evidence is outlined that shows how these advances could be translated into the modelling of skin, muscle or bone (or any combination of these). For example, this could include (but is not limited to):
  • novel in silico methodology for modelling fluid dynamics that could be, or has been, applied to tissue
  • methodology to explore energy deposition into tissue and its effects (this does not need to be a militarily relevant source of energy)
  • approaches to introducing perfusion into in vitro tissue models

3.2 Monitor

• Novel research or technologies for data collection, visualisation and interpretation of wound severity, prognosis, progression and outcomes. This could be through imaging or other sensing modalities but should offer improvement on current technologies, for example in the speed, ease and / or efficiency of use. Technologies could include, but are not limited to:
  • imaging or other sensing modalities currently being developed for other purposes, including non-medical, which could be adapted
  • approaches to monitor the state of wounds to enable guided debridement to maximise preservation of viable tissue
  • research on biomarkers of wound status / progression, linked to outcomes, to support triage during field care
  • the use of AI and data science approaches – including the development of underpinning data repositories – for user-friendly tracking of wound data and linked clinical outcomes

Responses in this theme should consider the typical challenges of collecting clinical data in theatre during wartime, including limited digital connectivity and access to power, and demanding environmental conditions, for example light levels, temperature, physical space.^{[footnote 7]}

4. What we don’t want

Our definition of a ‘wound’ in this context is an injury to skin, muscle and / or bone at the extremities (including maxillofacial) or torso. We are not including injury to internal organs, traumatic brain injury, ocular injury or hearing loss. 

Research / models based on chronic wounding related to a comorbidity (such as diabetes), or with a genetic basis (for example muscular dystrophy) without clear theoretical or empirical evidence for how the approach could be applied to a traumatic wound in a healthy individual, are not of interest.

We are not seeking novel therapeutic approaches, as scoping of this topic is being carried out for the CWRN via other avenues.

We are not interested in innovations below Technology Readiness Level 2.

We are not interested in literature reviews, paper-based studies, consultancy, non-technical solutions or marginal improvements to existing capabilities.

This is not a competition and therefore we are not asking for costed proposals at this stage. This is a market engagement request for information, and we do not commit to subsequently launch a formal DASA competition.

5. How to submit a Market Exploration Submission to DASA

Responses to this Market Exploration must be submitted via the DASA submission service, for which you will need to register. We recommend you use a Google Chrome browser to access the DASA submission service.

You will be asked for a title and short summary of your innovation, along with questions related to your organisation, your idea and technology maturity. We are seeking to understand what and how much further development is required for a complete solution to meet requirements, or whether a combination of separate solutions is required. The information you provide will assist in developing a statement of requirements for potential future activities.

Submissions must be submitted by Midday 12:00 (BST) on 30 September 2025. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept any submissions after this point.

Please only provide details of one product / capability per submission. If you have a several potential solutions, please submit multiple forms.

If you have any questions then please email accelerator@dstl.gov.uk with “Modelling and Monitoring Conflict Wounds Market Exploration” in the subject line.

6. How we use your information

Information you provide to us in a Market Exploration Submission, that is not already available to us from other sources, will be handled in-confidence. By submitting a Market Exploration Submission you are giving us permission to keep and use the information for our internal purposes, and to provide the information onwards, in-confidence, within UK Government. The Defence and Security Accelerator will not use or disclose the information for any other purpose, without first requesting permission to do so.

1. For more information on the CWRN and to be kept up to date as the network develops, please email CWRN@dstl.gov.uk. ↩

2. Khorram-Manesh A, Goniewicz K, Burkle FM, Robinson Y (2022) Review of Military Casualties in Modern Conflicts-The Re-emergence of Casualties From Armored Warfare Mil Med. Mar 28;187(3-4):e313-e321 ↩ ↩²

3. Staruch RMT, Hettiaratchy S (2019) Warzone trauma and surgical infections Surgery (Oxford) Volume 37, Issue 1, pp. 58-63 ↩

4. Staruch R, Naumann DN, Wordsworth M, et al. (2024) Understanding progressive tissue loss and wound burden in combat casualties: lessons learnt for future operational capability BMJ Mil Health, 170:501–506 ↩

5. Tien H and Beckett A (2022) Medical support for future large-scale combat operations, Journal of Military, Veteran and Family Health 8:s2, pp. 18-28 ↩

6. The replacement, reduction and refinement of the use of animals in research and testing, as outlined by the National Centre for the Replacement Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research ↩

7. Haimi M (2024) Telemedicine in war zones: prospects, barriers, and meeting the needs of special populations Front Med (Lausanne) Oct 10;11:1417025 ↩