Notice

Competition Document: Novel Technology for Intervening in Non-Compressible Haemorrhage

Published 9 September 2025

1. Introduction

This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition is run on behalf of the Defence Medical Services (DMS) and UK Research & Innovation (UKRI). Non-Compressible Haemorrhage (NCH) remains the leading cause of potentially preventable death in conflict. Despite significant improvements in combat casualty care, and reductions in overall mortality, patients with significant NCH face a high chance of dying from their injuries before they can reach a surgical facility. This risk applies to both service men and women injured on duty, but also affects civilians afflicted by life-threatening NCH such as those caused by motor-vehicle accidents, falls from height or inter-personal violence (including the use of knives).

This call seeks novel interventions starting at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 2-4, for NCH for use prehospital in both combat and civilian settings.

2. Competition key information

Key Information	Competition Details
Submission deadline	12:00 Midday on 04 November 2025 (GMT)
Total funding available	Up to £1.5m (excluding VAT). Several proposals may be funded
Technology Readiness Level(TRL)	Starting at TRL 2-4
Contract start month	Aim to start April 2026
Project duration	Equal to or less than 48 months
Cyber Risk Assessment (CRA) number and risk level	RAR-250822B03, Very Low Risk
Feedback release date	09 January 2026
Pre-sift criteria	See Section 7 - Pre-sift Criteria

2.1 Competition Specific Requirements

Please note that this competition has specific deliverables as part of its pre-sift criteria. Only those proposals that demonstrate compliance with the DASA pre-sift criteria will be taken forward to full assessment. For the full list of criteria, please see Section 7 - “Pre-sift Criteria”.

We are only seeking proposals for innovations that intervene to stop the non-compressible bleed. Interventions that either apply to compressible haemorrhage (i.e. those that can be occluded via known techniques, e.g. tourniquet) or seek predominantly to detect the location of a non-compressible bleed, rather than stop the bleed, are out of scope for this competition. Technologies that focus on identifying and stopping the bleed are within scope.

2.2 Where do I submit my proposal?

Via the DASA Online Submission Service where you will need to register for an account. Only proposals submitted through the DASA Online Submission Service will be accepted.

2.3 Public facing information

When submitting your proposal, you will be required to include a title, Proposal Value Proposition Statement (PVPS) and a short abstract. The title, PVPS and abstract you provide will be used by DASA, and Partners Across Government (PAG), to describe your project and its intended outcomes and benefits. They may be included at DASA events in relation to this competition and in documentation such as brochures. As this information can be shared, it should not contain information that may compromise Intellectual Property.

Abstracts – both funded and fundable but not funded – may be shared with international allied governments with a view to generating additional funds to support the activity. You consent to this sharing by submitting to the competition. Further permission would be sought from the bidder , prior to sharing the full proposal.

2.4 Further guidance

For further guidance on what to expect during the submission process and how your proposal will be assessed, please see the following GOV.UK pages and forms:

• Submit a proposal
• Assessment process and criteria
• Defence and Security Accelerator: ethical, legal and regulatory guidance
• MODREC Guidance for Suppliers
• Competition Terms and Conditions
• DASA Standard Terms and Conditions
• Supplier Assurance Questionnaire (SAQ)
• How to get in touch with your local Innovation Partner

3. Supporting activities

3.1 Launch webinar

16 September 2025 – Launch webinar providing further detail on the problem space and a chance to ask questions in an open forum. If you would like to participate, please register on the Eventbrite page. 

3.2 One-to-Ones

22 September 2025 and 23 September 2025 – A series of 15 minute one-to-one teleconference sessions, giving you the opportunity to ask specific technical questions to the competition team in a closed forum. Registration for these sessions will be available the day after the launch webinar on 17 September 2025, via the Eventbrite pages. Booking will be on a first come first served basis.

• Click here to book one-to-one session on 22 September 2025

• Click here to book one-to-one session on 23 September 2025

Non-technical questions about the competition process should be sent to the DASA Help Centre, accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.

3.3 Innovation Outline

If you are uncertain of the relevance of your innovation, it is strongly recommended that you contact your local DASA Innovation Partner to discuss your idea. You can initiate this through the submission of a Contact DASA Form by following instructions on the Contact a DASA Innovation Partner page if you do not already have an established relationship with your local Innovation Partner.

Your local Innovation Partner will initially explore the suitability of your idea within the context of the requirements of the competition. With specific interest in the aspects covered within the Competition Scope section.

Your local Innovation Partner will, if required, also advise you on the submission of an Innovation Outline (IO), primarily used to further explore the relevance of your idea to the competition.

You must submit this IO through the Submission Service regardless of an established relationship with your local Innovation Partner.

To submit an IO:

• log in to the submission service
• select the service category DASA Innovation Outline
• from the service name select Innovation Outline: Novel Technology for Intervening in Non-Compressible Haemorrhage
• complete the form

Your local Innovation Partner will be able to advise you on the IO content.

Please note that for this competition, your submitted IO will not be shared with stakeholders within the competition team, it will be used by your Innovation Partner to further explore the relevance of your idea to the competition. The competition closes at 12:00 Midday on 04 November 2025 (GMT). DASA cannot guarantee a response to an IO received after 21 October 2025.

All information you provide to us as part of your IO, that is not already available to us from other sources, will be handled in confidence. We will only share the information with those who can establish if your innovation is within scope of the competition. The information will only be used for the purposes for which it is provided to us. It won’t be used for other purposes, without us having obtained the necessary rights and permissions to do so.

Submitting an IO or speaking to your local innovation partner is not a mandatory criteria of this competition.

4. Competition scope

4.1 Background

Non-compressible haemorrhage (NCH) refers to significant bleeding that cannot be immediately stopped or sustainably controlled from application of external pressure. Compressible haemorrhage can typically be controlled by several means used individually or in combination (depending on the source of the haemorrhage), with methods varying from manual pressure, wound packing, pressure bandage or circumferential limb.

NCH may arise from injury to blood vessels and organs in the body where such external pressure cannot be applied or where application is challenging. As such, NCH bleeding may arise from within the torso (abdomen, pelvis and chest), or from the roots of the arms, leg or neck (junctional trauma, where the anatomical structures of the extremities join those of the torso). It could be due to bleeding from a large blood vessel, multiple small vessels or from organs such as the lungs, liver, spleen or kidneys.

Bleeding may occur within free anatomical void spaces such as the thoracic cavity in the chest or the peritoneal cavity of the abdomen; or in constrained spaces such as the retro-peritoneal zone of the pelvis and abdomen. Depending on the injury pattern, NCH may arise from one site, or several in different areas and may occur simultaneously with musculo-skeletal, brain or soft tissue trauma.

It may be apparent (for instance, in the case of bleeding that emanates from a wound track conveying blood externally), or obscure and very challenging to detect without the help of sophisticated in-hospital investigations.

NCH is highly lethal with a mortality rate greater than 40% depending on injury pattern and the rapidity of surgical intervention. NCH injuries typically require surgery or interventional radiology, conducted under general anaesthesia in a hospital setting, to enable controlled access to the bleeding vessel or organ and haemostasis (cessation of bleeding).

Standard surgical techniques involve application of pressure to bleeding organs through positioning of packs, haemostatic suturing, application of surgical clamps to vascular structures, and the use of haemostatic dressings that are applied directly to bleeding tissues within the torso.

Standard interventional radiological techniques, which require specialist imaging, expertise and equipment, involve the use of guided, intra-vascular catheters applied to the bleeding organs for targeted delivery of material to occlude bleeding blood vessels (embolization) or seal them whilst maintaining blood flow (covered vascular stenting). In the deployed setting, evacuation to surgery is the default means of definitively controlling NCH

Deaths from exsanguination can occur quickly and often before patients can be evacuated to hospital. For instance, the median time to death on military operations in Afghanistan following injury to the torso was 30 minutes.

Advances in the pre-hospital care of NCH have largely centred upon increasing the availability to deliver blood products to the bleeding patient in order to sustain the patient’s circulation and prevent catastrophic deterioration.

Whilst desirable, such solutions do not address the underlying haemorrhage and are not always sustainable. Development of novel devices to arrest NCH remains a comparatively under-exploited area of innovation but is conceptually attractive as such therapies may lessen the requirement for transfusion by directly arresting haemorrhage and preserving the patient’s circulating blood volume during evacuation to a surgical facility.

Given the austere nature of the setting, and the need to address bleeding as soon as possible, such devices should ideally be operable by non-physicians and deployable as soon as it is safe to do so, as close to point of injury as possible.

Such NCH devices should be exploitable for use in civil settings where traumatic haemorrhage threatens life. In the same manner that the availability of extremity tourniquets has become commonplace amongst NHS ambulance services, NCH is a leading cause of death in civilian major trauma, with those affected by penetrating injury leading to major vessel disruption or internal organ failure.

Notably, whilst still uncommon, knife crime offences remain comparatively high (50,500 in England and Wales in the 2023-24 period, compared to series low of 26,500 in 2014-15; ‘Knife crime statistics England and Wales’ and are increasing in frequency in urban centres within the UK. The criticality of early intervention by non-specialist users is equally pertinent in the civilian context as it is in the military one. This dual-use requirement should be considered when submitting to the competition.

4.2 Scope

We are seeking proposals for novel innovations that intervene to stop non-compressible bleeding. In this case ‘novel’ refers to products currently between TRL 2-4. Products can start anywhere in the TRL 2-4 range and can progress as far as feasible within the timeframe of the project. We expect funded products to progress by one or more TRLs by project end.

We are seeking engineering technology-driven, design-led solutions aimed at device-enabled control of haemorrhage. We encourage solutions that exploit and integrate existing technologies or approaches used or developed in non-healthcare sectors that could be re-oriented for the NCH challenge. For example:

• civil engineering
• hydraulic engineering
• pipeline maintenance and repair
• textiles
• materials and biomaterials science
• mechanical manipulation and instrument technology
• void engineering
• adaptive morphology
• robotics
• novel locomotion
• navigation
• sensing and modelling

We also welcome novel proposals that can readily translate contemporary unimplementable in-hospital solutions for use in the unique operating environment of the pre-hospital, pre-physician domain, close to point of injury. We particularly welcome submissions which will bring together applicants from disparate disciplines and sectors to develop novel devices.

We are not seeking to support innovations that have already progressed beyond TRL 4, i.e. we are not seeking devices developed to the extent that they have been assessed against comparator therapies using a validated model or simulation or where the developer is ready to obtain current Good Manufacturing Process compliance (TRL 5). Nor are we seeking to support solutions that are incremental advances of existing devices designed for pre-hospital management of NCH (at any stage of device maturation through pre-clinical to clinical evaluation).

Proposals based around novel haemostatic materials alone are not eligible unless incorporating a delivery technology that permits the introduction and sustained application of the material to a bleeding uncompressible structure (organ, vessel). Proposals using haemostatic materials based around manual packing of wounds, or blind instillation of haemostatic gels, liquids and other agents down wound tracks or into surface wounds are out of scope.

Proposals can be focussed around a type or anatomical zone of NCH and do not have to be designed for use against all NCH varieties, though proposals which can address more than one type of NCH (e.g. abdominal and thoracic bleeding) are welcomed.

NCH solutions must be deployable close to the point of injury and usable by non-physician medical providers in both combat and civilian settings. The device should incorporate design features that minimise the likelihood of iatrogenic trauma during application (mechanical damage and disruption to local structures, organs and tissues), minimises interruption of blood flow to non-injured structures, organs and tissues, integrates with existing workflows of casualty treatment, and does not threaten or complicate subsequent definitive surgery or standard patient management.

Solutions that incorporate novel detection, localisation or imaging technologies to identify the source of haemorrhage are within scope if the core capability of the device includes haemostatic attributes that can halt non-compressible haemorrhage. Devices where the design attributes are clearly weighted toward detection are out of scope.

Interventions that involve the development of pharmaceutical drugs or medicinal products are excluded from this competition.

4.3 Exploitation

It is envisaged that successful projects will secure further funding from other sources to progress through TRLs. These sources might include research councils under UKRI, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, future DASA open calls, or venture capital funding.

4.4 We are interested in…

We want novel ideas to benefit end-users working in UK defence and security and in civilian settings. Your proposal should include evidence of:

• How the device / technology will work to stop a non-compressible bleed. What current evidence or theoretical rationale is there for the innovation being able to meet the user requirement?
• The current TRL of your product and realistic programme of work to progress the product during the funding period and beyond.
• How the product would feasibly be used close to the point of injury by non-specialist medical providers.

4.5 We are not interested in…

Proposals focused on the following are out of scope:   

• products that:
  • have already surpassed TRL 4
  • are focused on bleed detection rather than intervention
  • involve the development of pharmaceutical drugs or medicinal products
  • can only be used by specialist medical/ physician-level providers
  • Rely on interventions that are incremental developments from existing pre-hospital solutions for NCH or iterative variants of existing solutions that are currently in development or nearing commercialisation; e.g. a new variant of expanding chemical foam, a new external compression device, a new variant of endovascular aortic balloon occlusion or new variants of stand-alone haemostatic materials.
• Constitute consultancy, paper-based studies or literature reviews which summarise the existing literature.
• An unsolicited resubmission of a previous DASA bid.
• 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 defence and security or civilian capabilities.
• Offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions.

5. Critical elements to include

When writing your proposal, ensure you have comprehensively covered the following elements:

• Focused on the competition requirements but also included a brief (un-costed) outline of the next stages of work required for exploitation.
• Included a list of other government funding you have received in this area. Making it clear how this proposal differs from that work.
• Included a detailed project plan with clear milestones and deliverables. Deliverables need to be well defined and designed to provide evidence of progress against the project plan. Your deliverables must include a written final report.
• Your proposal may contain up to six milestone payments, the value of each being commensurate to the work being delivered. The final milestone payment must be linked to the final deliverable and be no less than 20% value of the proposal.
• Planned (and costed) attendance at the following meetings, which will all be in the UK;
• A kick-off meeting at the start of your project and a close down at the end.
• A mid and end of project event.
• Regular reviews with the appointed Technical Partner (TP) and Project Manager (PM). The expectation is to hold quarterly project meetings, this frequency will be agreed by the TP and PM.
• Identified any ethical / legal / regulatory factors. Associated risks should have been added to the Risk Register in Step 5 of the submission service along with details of how they will be managed, including break points in the project if approvals are not received
• you must have included any requirements for access to Government Furnished X (GFX). GFX is the preferred nondescript term for anything that the Government provides in which the ‘X’ could be artefacts such as information or equipment. DASA cannot guarantee that GFX will be made available. You should have included an alternative plan in your proposal in case it is not available.

Relevant project meetings and events may take place virtually. Slides presented at these meetings should be appropriately marked and made available.

6. Accelerating and exploiting your innovation

Ensure your deliverables are designed with the aim of making it as easy as possible for assessors to recognise expected development in technology maturity of the potential solution over the lifetime of the project. Specifically, how this demonstrates improved capability against the current known (or presumed) solutions.

Over the lifetime of DASA awarded projects, ideas may mature and accelerate under the guidance of appropriate stakeholders, toward being functional capabilities. How long this takes, and how far towards a deployable capability the innovations progress will depend on any future exploitation after the completion of the DASA project.

Low TRL research and development may not be able to articulate exploitation in great detail, but it should be clear that there is credible advantage to be gained from the technology development.

6.1 Exploitation beyond your project plan

Include the following information within the Desirability question within the DASA Online Submission Service application form to help the assessors understand your exploitation intentions:

• 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.
• How your product could be tested in a representative environment in later phases.
• Any specific legal, ethical, commercial or regulatory considerations for exploitation.

7. Pre-sift Criteria

Before your proposal is assessed, all proposals will be checked for compliance with the DASA pre-sift criteria. Proposals will be rejected before full assessment if they do not comply.

For more information on how your proposal will be assessed please read Assessment process and criteria.

Novel Technology for Intervening in Non-Compressible Haemorrhage pre-sift criteria is as follows:

Criteria	Measure - Within scope (Pass) / Out of scope (Fail)
The proposal outlines how it meets the scope of the competition	Pass / Fail
The proposal explains how it meets the DASA criteria (Desirability, Feasibility, and Viability) in the relevant questions in Step 3 of the submission service	Pass / Fail
Maximum value of proposal does not exceed competition budget	Pass / Fail
The proposal contains a financial plan, a project plan and a resourcing plan which demonstrate how the work proposed will be completed	Pass / Fail
The delivery schedule within your proposal includes evidence of a written final report	Pass / Fail
The final deliverable month indicated is less than or equal to 48 months from March 2026, where the project start date is agreed by both parties	Pass / Fail
The proposal meets the TRL requirements. Project will start within range of TRL 2 – 4, upper TRL level not specified.	Pass / Fail
The proposal details an innovation that can be used by those without medical training.	Pass / Fail
The proposal does not contain attachments that have been used for additional text data over the stated word counts in Desirability, Feasibility, Viability and Additional Information	Pass / Fail
A resubmission of a previous proposal adheres to the resubmission guidelines	Pass / Fail

8. How your proposal will be assessed

Proposals that are compliant will be assessed against the standard DASA assessment criteria (Desirability, Feasibility and Viability) by subject matter experts from the MOD (including Dstl), PAG and the front-line military commands. You will not have the opportunity to view or comment on assessors’ recommendations.

DASA reserves the right to disclose on a confidential basis any information it receives from innovators during the procurement process, which includes the full proposal, to any third party engaged by DASA for the specific purpose of evaluating or assisting DASA in the evaluation of your proposal. In providing such information you consent to such disclosure. Appropriate confidentiality agreements will be put in place.

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

Innovators are not permitted to attend the Decision Conference.

9. DASA Terms and Conditions

Please read the DASA Terms and Conditions which contain important information for innovators. For this competition we will be using the Innovation Standard Contract (ISC), Terms and Conditions. Information on the relevant DEFCONs can be found by registering on the Knowledge in Defence site.

We require unqualified acceptance of the Terms and Conditions. Where innovator organisations have a commercial department, they will need to provide acceptance.

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

9.1 Feedback

Proposals that are unsuccessful will receive feedback in the form of bullet points and a couple of short paragraphs after the Decision Conference.

Where a proposal meets the fundable requirements for a competition, but is not funded, DASA will continue to seek funding from partners across government and shall consider your proposal fundable for 12 months from the date of the decision release.

We will share the abstract, PVPS and title of your proposal with any other UK government departments that may express an interest in funding the proposal through DASA, in accordance with the competition document. If a budget holder within the MOD wishes to read the full proposal to decide if they will fund it, we will share it with them under these circumstances. If it is within 60 days of the original NOT FUNDED decision release date, we will share the full proposal with them without seeking your permission. If it is over 60 days since the original NOT FUNDED decision we will seek your permission before sharing the full proposal with them.

For other potential funders, we will seek your permission before sharing the full proposal regardless of the number of days since the original NOT FUNDED decision release.

In the event that funding becomes available, DASA may ask whether you would still be prepared to undertake the work outlined in your proposal under the same terms. Your official DASA feedback will indicate if your proposal was deemed fundable, but not awarded funding at the time.

10. If your proposal is recommended for funding

Funded projects will be allocated a Project Manager (to monitor the project) and a Technical Partner (as a technical point of contact). In addition, the DASA team may work with an innovator to support delivery and exploitation including, when appropriate, introductions to end-users and business support to help develop their business.

10.1 Cyber Risk Assessment (CRA)

On receipt of a FUND decision, successful innovators must prove cyber resilience before the contract is awarded. The start of this process is the submission of a Supplier Assurance Questionnaire (SAQ). The SAQ allows innovators to demonstrate compliance with the specified risk level and the corresponding profile in Def Stan 05-138, and the level of control required will depend on this risk level.

To expedite the contracting time of successful innovators we ask all innovators to complete the SAQ before they submit their proposal (this is not mandated). The SAQ must be completed using the DASA Risk Assessment number RAR-250822B03, answer questions for risk level “Very Low”. In the SAQ form, for the contract name please use the competition title and for the contract description please use the title of your proposal.

The Defence Cyber Protection Partnership (DCPP) will review your SAQ submission and aim to respond within 2 to 5 working days with a reference number and an indication of your compliance status. They welcome emails if you think a response has not been provided in this time. There are 2 compliance statuses:

1. Compliant – no further action
2. Not compliant – you will be required to complete a Cyber Implementation Plan (CIP) before the contract is placed which will need to be reviewed and agreed with the relevant project manager or, a Cyber Essentials Certification (CEC) must be held before the contract can be awarded. Further information and guidance on obtaining a CEC can be found here: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberessentials/overview

The email response from DCPP should be uploaded (JPG or PNG format) as part of your proposal before submission. You will also be asked to enter your SAQ reference number. Please allow enough time to receive the SAQ reference number prior to competition close at 12:00 midday on 04 November 2025 (GMT).

10.2 Export control for overseas partners

All relevant export control regulations will apply if a company ultimately wants to sell a developed solution to a foreign entity. All innovators must ensure that they can obtain, if required, the necessary export licences for their proposals and developments, such that they can be supplied to the UK and other countries. If you cannot confirm that you can gain the requisite licences, your proposal will be sifted out of the competition.

Additionally, if we believe that you will not be able to obtain export clearance, additional checks may be conducted, which may also result in your proposal being sifted out of the competition.

11. Points of Contact

During the competition phase all correspondence must be via the DASA Points of Contact detailed below.

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 of information to all potential innovators.

11.1 Innovation Partner

DASA has a team of locally based Innovation Partners that can provide support in working with DASA. It is strongly recommended that you contact your local Innovation Partner to discuss your idea for any aspect of this competition.

You can initiate this through the submission of a Contact DASA Form by following instructions on the Contact a DASA Innovation Partner page if you do not already have an established relationship with your local Innovation Partner.

11.2 DASA Help Centre

Competition queries including on process, application, commercial, technical and intellectual property aspects should be sent to the DASA Help Centre at accelerator@dstl.gov.uk, quoting the competition title. DASA cannot guarantee a response to a query after the 14 October 2025, 3 weeks before the competition closes.

• (BST): British Summer Time

• (CIP): Cyber Implementation Plan

• (CRA): Cyber Risk Assessment

• (DASA): Defence and Security Accelerator

• (DCPP): Defence Cyber Protection Partnership

• (DEFCON): Defence Contract Conditions

• (GFA): Government Furnished Assets

• (GMT): Greenwich Mean Time

• (ISC): Innovation Standard Contract

• (MOD): Ministry of Defence

• (MODREC): Ministry of Defence Research Ethics Committee

• (PAG): Partners Across Government

• (PVPS): Proposal Value Proposition Statement

• (UK): United Kingdom

• (SAQ): Supplier Assurance Questionnaire

• (TRL): Technology Readiness Level

• (VAT): Value Added Tax