Notice

Wireless communications, Networking and Information Theory Challenge

Updated 24 March 2021

Picture shows a signal waveform

Reminder

Suppliers must complete the Supplier Assurance Questionnaire (SAQ) prior to competition close at midday BST on Wednesday 7 April 2021. You can do this by registering and logging onto the Supplier Cyber Protection Portal. When prompted during the SAQ, please enter the Risk Assessment Reference (RAR) number for this competition: RAR-GPGK52DP.

You must enter the SAQ reference number within the DASA submission service portal when you submit your proposal. If your SAQ suggests you are non-compliant this does not prevent you submitting a proposal; please still enter your SAQ number in your proposal and if you are successful in the competition and awarded funding, you will be required to complete a Cyber Implementation Plan (CIP) to become compliant which we will agree with you, before the contract is placed.

1. Introduction

This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition is seeking proposals for innovative technologies to deliver information exchange capabilities that are resilient in a highly dynamic operating environment where there are significant challenges from congestion and contention (e.g. jamming). The following areas are of interest:

• novel communication techniques
• novel coding and modulation
• novel networking techniques

We are interested in innovations that will reach Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) of between 3 and 6, at the end of the Phase 1 competition.

£500k is available for this Phase 1 DASA competition. There is no upper-limit per proposal for this competition, but we are expecting to fund around 5 to 10 proposals to complete before the end of February 2022. Dstl will be seeking a balanced set of proposals over the 3 challenge areas.

The competition closes for submissions at midday BST on Wednesday 7 April 2021.

2. Competition Scope

2.1 Background

The UK’s future defence capability is centred on the concept of Information Advantage,^{[footnote 1]} meaning the ability to out-think and out-decide adversaries to achieve dominance in the battlespace and during operations. Fundamental to Information Advantage is the ability to exchange information in a timely manner, resilient to adversary action, which may come in the form of electronic, cyber or physical attack.

This competition seeks innovations to demonstrate information exchange capabilities that are resilient to the challenges of the deployed military environment - often referred to as a congested and contested environment. These challenges include:

• mobility - nearly all network entities in the deployed environment, ranging from single vehicles to large formations, are highly mobile and this mobility is not always predictable in advance
• spectrum access - the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is a shared resource. Operating alongside allies and civil populations brings significant problems for spectrum planning and access
• demand for information - our forces increasingly depend on information exchange, which is driving a demand for ever greater communications capacity
• adversary threat - just as our communications are the essential enabler of Information Advantage, they could also allow an adversary to detect and attack us

This DASA competition aims to provide novel and disruptive ideas into the Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA) funded Resilient Deployed Communications (RDC) research project within the Information Systems (IS) Programme at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). In accordance with the RDC project outcomes, technologies could inform policy or procurement activities. Any future exploitation of technologies may be via the different Front Line Commands (Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force and UK Strategic Command), procurement organisations and partners across government, as well as via international research collaboration where appropriate, in order to provide enhanced deployed communications systems to the defence user.

2.2 Scope

We are seeking proposals for novel capability in the fields of wireless communications, networking and information theory.^{[footnote 2]} Proposals can be based on novel ideas within existing communications standards and defence networks, or for completely new approaches to transmitting information.

Proposals can target any of the domains of defence (including Air, Land and Maritime) communications capability; however proposals should be focussed on deployed scenarios, rather than fixed communications infrastructure, such as data centres.

We welcome approaches looking to leverage civilian communications technology components that could be modified to support defence requirements, for example modifying waveforms from 5G. However, we discourage proposals that require the whole use of civilian communications networks, or ‘full stack’ implementations of civilian communications systems (such as Fourth Generation Long-Term Evolution (4G LTE)).

3. Competition Challenges

This competition has 3 key challenge areas. Proposals must be focused on one or more of these:

• novel communications techniques
• novel coding and modulation^{[footnote 3]}
• novel networking techniques

The key metric in these challenge areas is resilience to disruption, in terms of the ability to provide an efficient communications link in a congested and contested environment. We require the ability to provide the best and most robust communications given the prevailing EM environment, and resource allocation. Resilience describes the ability to adapt in the face of challenge and maintain meaningful service. Absolute performance or data rate is of interest but less critical.

3.1 Challenge 1: Novel Communications Techniques

Proposals under this challenge area should address development of novel ways of delivering information wirelessly.

In this challenge area solutions may include:

• exploitation of new parts of the EM Spectrum not traditionally used for defence communications. Those currently used tend to be focused in high frequency to super high frequency bands of the EM spectrum
• non-traditional techniques – such as acoustic, magneto-inductive, quantum
• multi-function systems – such as combined electronic sensing and communications

3.2 Challenge 2: Novel Coding and Modulation

Proposals under this challenge area should seek to address improvement in the way that information is transformed, mapped and encapsulated onto a medium for transmission through noisy channels, such as those created by a congested and contested EM environment.

In this challenge area solutions may include:

• techniques for improving communications performance
• reducing probability of detection or interception
• enhanced synchronisation schemes
• source coding (compression) techniques
• adaptive link layer techniques
• ultra low-rate coding techniques
• short block length efficient coding design
• error detection and correction
• quantum information theory
• physical layer security

3.3 Challenge 3: Novel Networking Techniques

Proposals in this challenge area should be based around techniques for establishing and managing dynamic networks. This may incorporate a diverse range of communication link technologies, in order to improve information transfer across organisations in congested and contested environments.

In this challenge area solutions may include:

• network management for very dynamic networks
• network control plane
• novel routing / forwarding approaches to handle mobility
• interfaces between network control planes
• high density, low trust networks
• interoperability with civilian forces, and allied nations^{[footnote 4]}

3.4 Clarification of what we want

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

• theoretical development, methodological advancement or proof of concept research which can demonstrate potential for translation to practical demonstration in later phases
• innovation
• clear demonstration of how the proposed work applies to any defence and security context
• how projects will be progressed to a technical demonstration at the end of the contract, either in simulation, testbed or practical demonstration of the system

3.5 Clarification of what we don’t want

For this competition we are not interested in proposals that:

• constitute consultancy, paper-based studies or literature reviews which just summarise the existing literature without any view of future innovation
• are an identical resubmission of a previous proposal to DASA or MOD without modification
• 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 capabilities
• offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions
• offer virtual communications services which assume an underlying communications infrastructure
• offer systems which depend on bespoke protocols and require a gateway to interact externally
• constitute research into the specific areas of:
  • quantum key distribution
  • satellite communications
  • communications links focused on a single application (e.g. video sharing)

4. Exploitation

It is important that over the lifetime of DASA competitions, ideas are matured and accelerated towards appropriate end users to enhance capability. How long this takes will be dependent on the nature and starting point of the innovation. Early identification and appropriate engagement with potential end users during the competition and subsequent phases are essential in order to develop and implement an exploitation plan.

All proposals to DASA should articulate the expected development in technology maturity of the potential solution over the lifetime of the contract and how this relates to improved operational capability against the current known (or presumed) baseline. Your deliverables should be designed to evidence these aspects with the aim of making it as easy as possible for potential collaborators/stakeholders to identify the innovative elements of your proposal in order to consider routes for exploitation. DASA Innovation Partners are available to support you with defence and security context. You can contact an Innovation Partner via the DASA website.

A higher technology maturity will be expected in any subsequent phases, which may be proposed and articulated, but will not be funded under this call. You may wish to include some of the following information, where known, to help the assessors understand your exploitation plans to date:

• the intended defence or security users of your final product and whether you have previously engaged with them, their procurement arm or their research and development arm
• awareness of, and alignment to, any existing end user procurement programmes
• the anticipated benefits (for example, in cost, time, improved capability) that your solution will provide to the user
• whether it is likely to be a standalone product or integrated with other technologies or platforms
• 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

Longer term studies may not be able to articulate exploitation in great detail, but it should always be clear that there is some credible advantage to be gained from the technology development.

To increase the impact and likelihood of exploitation, the output of these proposals may be shared across UK government as appropriate including partners in National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Furthermore, as deemed appropriate, proposal outputs may be shared with partner nation governments including Five Eyes (FVEYS) partners and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) nations in accordance with the rights secured under Defcon 705.

Depending on the nature of the proposal, accepted proposals may also be conducted with support of Front Line Commands across the MOD, and appropriate procurement organisations, using the RDC project as a conduit.

5. How to apply

Proposals for funding to meet these challenges must be submitted by Wednesday 7 April 2021 at midday BST via the DASA submission service for which you will be required to register.

The total funding available for Phase 1 of this competition is £500k (ex VAT). There is no upper-limit per proposal for this competition, but we are expecting to fund 5 to 10 proposals. Suppliers may submit proposals that answer 1 or more of the challenge areas as appropriate, and may also submit multiple proposals for multiple challenges. If successful, contracts will be awarded for a maximum duration of 8 months.

Additional funding for subsequent phases to increase TRL further may be available. Any further phases will be open to applications from all suppliers and not just those that submitted Phase 1 successful proposals.

Further guidance on submitting a proposal is available on the DASA website.

5.1 What your proposal must include

The proposal should focus on the Phase 1 requirements but must also include a brief (uncosted) outline of the next stages of work required for exploitation.

When submitting a proposal, you must complete all sections of the online form, including an appropriate level of technical information to allow assessment of the proposal and a completed finances section. Completed proposals must comply with the financial rules set for this competition. There is no upper-limit per proposal for this competition, but please note that we are looking to fund 5 to 10 proposals under this Phase 1. You must include a list of other current or recent government funding you may have received in this area if appropriate, making it clear how this proposal differs from this work.

A project plan with clear milestones and deliverables must be provided. Deliverables must be well defined and designed to provide evidence of progress against the project plan and the end-point for this phase; they must include a final report. You should also plan for attendance at a kick-off meeting at the start of Phase 1, and an end of project demonstration event at the end of Phase 1 (either in simulation, testbed or practical demonstrator of system), as well as regular reviews with the appointed Technical Partner and Project Manager; all meetings will be in the UK, or virtual. Your proposal must demonstrate how you will complete all activities/services and provide all deliverables within the competition timescales (8 months). Proposals with any deliverables (including final report) outside the competition timeline will be rejected as non-compliant.

A resourcing plan must also be provided that identifies, where possible, the nationalities of those proposed research workers that you intend working on this phase. In the event of proposals being recommended for funding, the DASA reserves the right to undertake due diligence checks including the clearance of proposed research workers. Please note that this process will take as long as necessary and could take up to 6 weeks in some cases for non-UK nationals.

You must identify any ethical / legal / regulatory factors within your proposal and how the associated risks will be managed, including break points in the project if approvals are not received. MODREC approvals can take up to 5 months therefore you should plan your work programme accordingly. If you are unsure if your proposal will need to apply for MODREC approval, then please contact DASA for further guidance.

Requirements for access to Government Furnished Assets (GFA), for example, information, equipment, materials and facilities, should be included in your proposal. DASA cannot guarantee that GFA will be available.

Failure to provide any of the above listed will automatically render your proposal non-compliant.

5.2 Cyber risk assessment

This competition has a cyber risk level of “Very Low” and as such, suppliers must submit a Supplier Assurance Questionnaire (SAQ) on the Supplier Cyber Protection Portal. The SAQ allows suppliers to demonstrate compliance with the specified risk level and the corresponding profile in Def Stan 05-138, the levels of controls required will depend on this risk level. Suppliers should create an account in the Supplier Cyber Protection Portalif they do not already have one, and will be able to find the corresponding SAQ to the requirement by searching the Risk Assessment Reference (RAR) for this competition: RAR-GPGK52DP. Further guidance can be found at: DCPP: Cyber Security Model industry buyer and supplier guide.

Suppliers must complete the SAQ prior to competition close at midday BST on Wednesday 7 April 2021. You must enter the SAQ reference number within the DASA submission service portal when you submit your proposal.

5.3 Public facing information

When submitting your proposal, you will be required to include a proposal title and a short abstract. The title and abstract you provide will be used by DASA, and other government departments, to describe the project and its intended outcomes and benefits. It will be used for inclusion at DASA events in relation to this competition and included in documentation such as brochures. The proposal title will also be published in the DASA transparency data on GOV.UK, along with your company name, the amount of funding, and the start and end dates of your contract.

5.4 How your proposal will be assessed

At Stage 1, all proposals will be checked for compliance with the competition document and may be rejected before full assessment if they do not comply. Only those proposals who demonstrate their compliance against the competition scope and DASA mandatory criteria will be taken forward to full assessment. Failure to achieve full compliance against Stage 1 will render your proposal non-compliant and will not be considered any further:

Mandatory Criteria

The proposal outlines how it meets the scope of the competition	Within scope (Pass) / Out of scope (Fail)
The proposal fully explains in all three sections of the DASA submission service how it meets the DASA criteria	Pass / Fail
The proposal clearly details a financial plan, a project plan and a resourcing plan to complete the work proposed	Pass / Fail
The proposal identifies the need (or not) for MODREC approval	Pass / Fail
The proposal identifies any GFA required	Pass / Fail
The proposal does not exceed competition funding limit of £500k (ex. VAT)	Pass / Fail
The proposal demonstrates how all research and development activities/services (including delivery of the final report) will be completed within 8 months from award of contract (or less)	Pass / Fail
The bidder has obtained the authority to provide unqualified acceptance of the terms and conditions of the Contract	Pass / Fail
The bidder has submitted a Supplier Assurance Questionnaire (SAQ) – See Section 5.2 above	Pass / Fail

Proposals that pass Stage 1 will then be assessed against the standard DASA assessment criteria (Desirability, Feasibility and Viability) by subject matter experts from the MOD (including Dstl), other government departments and front-line military commands. You will not have the opportunity to comment on assessors comments.

DASA reserves the right to disclose on a confidential basis any information it receives from bidders during the procurement process (including information identified by the bidder as Commercially Sensitive Information in accordance with the provisions of this competition) to any third party engaged by DASA for the specific purpose of evaluating or assisting DASA in the evaluation of the bidder’s proposal. In providing such information the bidder consents to such disclosure. Appropriate confidentiality agreements will be put in place.

Further guidance on how your proposal is assessed is available on the DASA website.

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

Proposals that are unsuccessful will receive brief feedback after the Decision Conference.

5.5 Things you should know about DASA contracts

Please read the DASA terms and conditions which contain important information for suppliers. For this competition we will be using the Innovation Standard Contract (ISC), links to the contract here: Terms and Schedules. We will require unqualified acceptance of the terms and conditions. For the avoidance of any doubt, for this Themed Competition we are NOT using the DASA Short Form Contract (SFC).

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

DASA also collects information from projects after the project has concluded and you should expect to be contacted once your project has completed for measurement purposes.

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

For this phase/competition, £500k is currently available to fund proposals. There may be occasions where additional funding from other funding lines may subsequently become available to allow us to revisit those proposals deemed suitable for funding but where limitations on funding at the time prevented DASA from awarding a subsequent contract. In such situations, DASA reserves the right to keep such proposals in reserve. In the event that additional funding subsequently becomes available, DASA may ask whether you would still be prepared to undertake the work outlined in your proposal under the same terms.

6. Phase 1 Dates

Competition launch	Wednesday 10 February 2021
Pre bookable 1-1 telecom sessions	Thursday 18 February and Tuesday 23 February 2021
Cyber risk assessment completion by	Wednesday 7 April 2021 at midday BST
Competition closes	Wednesday 7 April 2021 at midday BST
Feedback release	Wednesday 9 June 2021
Contracting	Aim to start end June 2021 and finish 8 months later in February 2022

6.1 Supporting events

Thursday 18 and Tuesday 23 February 2021 – A series of 15 minute one-to-one teleconference sessions, giving you the opportunity to ask specific questions. If you would like to participate, please register on the Eventbrite pages: 18 February 2021 or 23 February 2021.

7. Help

Competition queries including on process, application, commercial, technical and intellectual property aspects should be sent to accelerator@dstl.gov.uk, quoting the competition title. If you wish to be added to the campaign on ECS please email a request into the accelerator inbox, this will ensure you receive future updates on this competition.

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 suppliers.

1. See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/information-advantage-jcn-218 ↩

2. Information theory is the scientific field of the quantification, storage, and communication of information, and is fundamental to the design of efficient communications systems. ↩

3. The second challenge refers to the need for novel information theory coding and not software coding ↩

4. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/602827/doctrine_nato_cis_ajp_6.pdf
   https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/643245/concepts_uk_future_c2_jcn_2_17.pdf ↩