Notice

PYRAMID for avionics and mission systems (Phase 2): Competition Document

Published 30 September 2025

1. Introduction

This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition is run on behalf of the Royal Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO). Phase 2 follows on from the Phase 1 competition and is aimed at furthering the adoption of the PYRAMID Reference Architecture (PRA) in avionics and mission systems. We welcome proposals that explore the wider benefits of PYRAMID including collaborative working, component re-use, and rapid system adaptability at all development stages ‘from requirement to in-service’, including, for example, the generation and use of modular safety evidence.

2. Competition key information

Key Information	Competition Details
Submission deadline	12:00 Midday on 25 November 2025 (GMT)
Total funding available	£3 million (excluding VAT). We expect to fund between 5 and 10 proposals
Contract start month	Aim to start April 2026
Project duration	Equal to or less than 11 months assuming a start date of April 2026. Final deliverable date must be by 26 February 2027.
Cyber Risk Assessment (CRA) number and risk level	RAR-250902B01, Very Low Risk
Feedback release date	5 February 2026
Pre-sift criteria	See Section 8 Pre-sift Criteria

2.1 Competition Specific Requirements

Please note that this competition has specific mandatory 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 8.

For this competition you will be required to provide as part of your submission an unambiguous plan describing your project ambitions and how it meets the aim of the competition.

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.

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
• 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

14 October 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

23 October 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 14 October 2025, on the Eventbrite page. Booking will be on a first come first served basis.

During the registration process you will be asked to provide details of your particular enquiry. Please provide full details of your questions (rather than something brief such as ‘is my idea in scope’) so that we can ensure the right people and information are available for your session.

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

3.3 Collaboration survey

We encourage collaboration between innovators for this competition. To support this, we have a short survey to collect details of those who wish to explore collaboration possibilities. If you are interested, please complete the collaboration survey by 1700 (GMT) on 12 November 2025. Details will be circulated to all who complete the survey every Thursday from October 9 until November 13.

Information you provide (including personal details) will be circulated among the innovators who have completed the survey. We will share details after an initial screening process has taken place, and we reserve the right not to share all details.

All collaboration for proposal submissions is on an innovator-innovator basis. It is the innovators’ responsibility to determine the suitability of collaborators.

Absence of collaboration will not preclude submission into this competition.

3.4 Training Course (for funded projects only)

An instructor led 4.5 day PYRAMID Practitioner’s Training Course has been developed, and while not essential for the adoption of PYRAMID this training may, depending on availability and demand, be offered. An e-learning course is also being developed providing similar material and it is intended that some training modules will be made available to suppliers but this cannot be guaranteed.

3.5 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. To contact your local Innovation Partner, complete the Contact DASA Form by following instructions on the Contact a DASA Innovation Partner page, particularly 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:

1. Log in to the submission service
2. Select the service category DASA Innovation Outline
3. From the service name select Innovation Outline: PYRAMID for avionics and mission systems (Phase 2)
4. Complete the form

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

Submission of an IO for this competition will allow socialisation of the idea across the competition team and all elements of the IO will be shared. The competition team is made up of DASA and Dstl staff. You should receive a response within two weeks, confirming whether or not your idea is of interest and in scope. The competition closes at 12:00 Midday on 25 November 2025 (GMT). DASA cannot guarantee a response to an IO received after 4 November 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: Why we invested in PYRAMID

Previous generations of aircraft have suffered from avionics design not optimised for the introduction of new technology; a problem set to get worse with the accelerating rate of technological change. Future combat aircraft will be more dependent on software than ever to deliver mission system capability with at least an order of magnitude increase in the quantity of software over the previous generation; and this trend is set to continue. This complexity needed to be managed, as was the ability to collaborate effectively with partners and allies on aircraft design, development, and through-life capability management.

Legacy approaches to software development have often meant that relatively small software changes can have wide reaching consequences across the aircraft, and the approach to software design and development has limited the scope for reuse both within the aircraft and across air vehicles. This problem has become even more significant with the rapid growth in the complexity of avionics and mission systems to meet capability needs. Current predictions are for 10s of millions of lines of code for the mission systems applications software, and with this comes an even greater burden associated with updating and inserting new functionality in this software.

Effective partnering, capability exchange, and interoperability between allies are essential for operational success. Modularity and open architectures have been identified as key enablers, but their consistent application across air platforms, and ensuring compatibility with other standards, must be properly addressed if the benefits are to be fully realised.

PYRAMID is a UK MOD initiative to develop rapidly adaptable avionics and mission systems designed to enhance collaboration through a suite of reusable, functional software components designed to operate within a well-defined software Reference Architecture enabled by systematic reuse processes and Model Based Systems Engineering. PYRAMID targets both future air systems and upgrades to legacy systems to deliver operational advantage, and to reduce the time and cost in implementing through-life capability enhancements. The MOD has made a significant investment in this initiative, and is now working across national and international programmes, and industrial partners, to support adoption and realise the tremendous benefits that PYRAMID can offer to military capability, effective collaboration, and industry programmes.

4.2 The exploitation environment

PYRAMID was designed for the modular and consistent development of avionics and mission systems applications, but also for their associated ground systems and synthetic training systems. It is expected that all exploitation proposals will be in this domain.

PYRAMID has also been designed to be compatible with all safety and security assurance levels and it can be applied to individual software components as well as sub-systems and full systems.

4.3 Exploitation

Phase 1 of the PYRAMID Competition was designed specifically to accelerate the adoption of PRA in the development of systems and to understand if there are any improvements that can be made to the architecture or training information. 

Phase 2 of the Competition is intended to continue these themes; we are particularly interested in encouraging projects which develop collaboration between suppliers and projects which focus on developing conceptual and enabling functionality of PYRAMID or wider engineering processes and approaches enabled by PYRAMID, with the potential to enhance the benefits of its adoption. 

In all cases, a clear explanation of how the PYRAMID compliant components or deployments fit within the wider system or overarching capability will be essential to enabling an understanding of future exploitation into a deployable capability.

5. Competition requirement

If you received funding under Phase 1 your proposal must explain clearly how your additional proposal will further the adoption of PYRAMID within your organisation.

Your proposal must include a plan which unambiguously specifies:

• what system will be re-engineered or developed to be PYRAMID compliant, how this forms part of a wider air system/capability, how these will be integrated into a deployable capability, and the proposed exploitation route for the system developed - This should include a clear indication of the PYRAMID compliant components that will be developed, although it is recognised that this may be refined as the project evolves
• the PYRAMID Concepts (as defined in the PYRAMID Technical Standard V1.0 and the associated Technical Standard Guidance) that will be applied
• what collaborative development will be undertaken (where applicable), which may include joint projects across multiple organisations or the re-use of components already developed by other projects or organisations
• how the work will support the wider benefits of PYRAMID such as rapid system adaptability, alignment with other modular open architecture standards, product line engineering, and end-to-end model based systems engineering to be achieved - This could include, for example, the demonstration of the generation of modular safety evidence to support more rapid aircraft re-certification following a change

The project will require you to:

• develop a PYRAMID compliant version of your avionics/mission system which may either be a new system or an existing system that is re-engineered

• provide demonstrations of the development environment including any Model Based Systems Engineering processes

• provide the following Deliverables:

  • at least one interim report capturing progress to date building to

  • a final ‘Technical’ report providing a description of the avionics/mission system, the PYRAMID components developed, the PYRAMID concepts adopted, and how PYRAMID compliance has been achieved and assessed, providing evidence accordingly. It is recognised that this report may need to include commercially sensitive technical information and intellectual property relating to the avionics/mission system to evidence achieving compliance, and accordingly DASA/MOD shall only use the Deliverable internally within MOD for information purposes, and to confirm the requirements of the competition and proposal have been met

  • a final ‘Lessons Identified’ report (delivered under DEFCON 703) detailing:
    • experiences in undertaking the PYRAMID training and the effectiveness of the course, including number of people trained
    • potential improvements to the PYRAMID document set (clarity, detail, inclusion of worked examples)
    • lessons regarding the PYRAMID deployment process adopted
    • initial views regarding the benefits of adopting PYRAMID
    • level of reuse enabled by PYRAMID (for example multiple instantiations of component types, potential for product line engineering)
    • effectiveness of the PYRAMID Query Management Service (if required and used)
    • the compatibility of PYRAMID with other open architecture standards and approaches
    • views regarding provision of components developed into a ‘PYRAMID Marketplace’ for wider exploitation

In addition, you shall be required to:

• attend virtual monthly progress reviews to present project progress to date, including the taking and sharing of minutes

• attend quarterly face to face project progress review meetings at your UK premises, including the taking and sharing of minutes

• attend a 2 day end of project event in the London area ( maximum of 2 people) to present your work to interested MOD stakeholders in a closed meeting and network with other suppliers funded under this competition

In the unexpected event of project issues, you are expected to support additional virtual meetings/communication as required.

DASA fully recognises that the duration of the product development programme will not necessarily align with any envisaged DASA contract award or completion date. Therefore, for programmes already in progress, DASA seeks to establish an arrangement that permits suitable access to PYRAMID related lessons which may have been identified prior to contract award. In addition, for those programmes with durations that extend beyond the contract end date DASA seeks to maintain an enduring relationship in order to secure access to the lessons learnt over the duration of the programme.

Although not essential and possibly limited by classification, the Authority would welcome support for the promotion of PYRAMID. This could include membership of the PYRAMID communities of interest, the production of academic papers, conference briefings, inclusion of PYRAMID references on product brochures and specifications, and wider briefings across government and industry presenting the outcome of the work.

5.1 We are interested in…

For this competition we are building on previous success in PYRAMID adoption, and extending this even further to widen the PYRAMID supplier base, and to explore the adoption of the PYRAMID concepts as defined in the Technical Standard; but also the wider engineering processes enabled by PYRAMID in terms of rapid adaptability, re-use, collaborative working, and model based design, development, and verification/certification.

Whilst PYRAMID has already been de-risked and validated through analysis and demonstration, the Authority remain interested in lessons regarding the technical solution, documentation, and training material; along with other recommendations for further guidance material. This will be provided through the deliverables and reports. We also encourage proposals that develop collaboration between suppliers to demonstrate the advantages of adopting a consistent approach to modular system design and product line engineering. Funding through this competition is for adoption of the PRA and demonstrating PYRAMID compliance in avionics systems. Anything other than this will be considered out of scope for this competition.

Capital and Hardware costs are not eligible for funding under this competition.

PYRAMID does not mandate the use of specific modelling or systems/software tools and therefore the costs of purchasing or licencing these tools are not eligible.

5.2 We are not interested in…

We are not interested in proposals that:

• request funding towards developments that are not related to the adoption of the PRA
• offer demonstrations of off-the-shelf products requiring no experimental development (unless applied in a novel way to the challenge)

• apply to systems that offer no real long-term prospect of integration into defence and security capabilities

• are a re-submission of a proposal which was sifted out or not funded as part of Phase 1 of this Competition; however, proposals which have been substantively redesigned to take account of feedback from Phase 1 may be submitted

6. Critical elements to include

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

• the proposal is focused on the Phase 2 requirements but also includes a brief (un-costed) outline of the next stages of work required for exploitation
• you have included a list of other government funding you have received in this area, making it clear how this proposal differs from that work
• you have 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 two written final reports and at least one interim report - Interim payments can only be made against a deliverable
• you have planned (and costed) attendance at the following meetings, which will all be in the UK:
  • a kick-off meeting at the start of Phase 2
  • an end of project event at the end of Phase 2
  • regular reviews with the appointed Technical Partner and Project Manager
  • close down meeting at the end of the project

These activities may take place virtually. Slides presented at these meetings should be appropriately marked and made available

• you have 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 items (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.

7. 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, towards 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.

7.1 Exploitation beyond your project plan

Include the following information under the Exploitation 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, airworthiness/safety certification, 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 -any specific legal, ethical, commercial or regulatory considerations for exploitation
• plans to adopt PYRAMID for other systems or sub-systems or areas within your business

8. 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.

 PYRAMID for avionics and mission systems (Phase 2) pre-sift criteria are 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
The proposal must contain a financial plan, a project plan and a resourcing plan which demonstrate how the work proposed will be completed	Pass / Fail
The proposal value does not exceed £3 million (The funding available for the competition)	Pass / Fail
The delivery schedule within your proposal includes evidence of a two written final reports and at least one interim report.(nb Payments can only be made against a deliverable)	Pass / Fail
You confirm you are not claiming for capital or hardware costs	Pass / Fail
The proposal confirms there is no need for GFX apart from the training if offered	Pass / Fail
The final deliverable month indicated must be less than or equal to 11 months from T0 where T0 is the project start date agreed by both parties (All deliverables must be delivered by Feb 26 2027).	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

9. 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.

10. 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.

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

Intellectual property

DEFCON 703 is the IP condition applicable to contracts funded through this competition. Information on the relevant DEFCONs can be found by registering on the Knowledge in Defence site.

We will use deliverables from DASA contracts in accordance with our rights detailed in this competition document, and the contract Terms and Conditions. This includes sharing deliverables

Finance items and payments must be entered in pounds sterling; any contract awarded under this competition will be in pounds sterling  

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.

11. 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.

11.1 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- 250902B01, 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 2-5 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 Improvement 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 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 25 November 2025 (GMT).

11.2 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.

12. 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.

12.1 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.

12.2 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 4 November 2025, 3 weeks before the competition closes.