DASA – A Joint Effort

Overview

This competition is seeking innovations and new approaches that will accelerate the integration of advanced materials onto military platforms. These materials may be monolithic, composite or functionally graded depending on the application. They may have been manufactured by conventional or advanced manufacture techniques, including additive manufacture.

Developments of particular interest for this competition include:

• enabling new material combinations
• novel approaches to the integration of advanced or novel materials
• increasing durability of joints in military operating conditions
• joints that allow easier modification/replacement of components or sub-systems on a platform
• health and usage monitoring of joints

Scope

Phase 1 intends to fund different proof-of-concepts that addresses one or more of the challenges outlined below. Key requirements that apply across all the challenges for creating and managing joints on military platforms are:

• creating effective joints in real-world conditions (for example with surface contamination or repairing damaged material)
• developing techniques that are cost effective (whether this is by reducing manufacturing costs or via through-life savings)
• considering the fire, smoke and toxicity performance of materials and interfaces
• developing joining approaches that are light weight compared to current methods

Your proposal should include:

• innovation and/or novel ideas for defence
• a material science/engineering approach
• clear evidence of how the proposed work builds on existing published or open knowledge
• consideration of the operating environments experienced by in-service military equipment
• a clear pathway to future exploitation, including identifying key partners
• a clear description of the benefit and advantages of your approach
• evidence that it will enhance or build defence capability

Eligibility

DASA are seeking proposals from both industry and academia on the topic of novel methods for the integration of advanced materials onto military platforms.

Funding Costs

The initial funding of £500k is expected to fund multiple proposals for the DASA-led competition. If successful, Phase 1 contracts will be awarded for a duration of up to 9 months.

Additional funding for follow-on phases to increase TRL further is anticipated to be available. Any further phases will be open to applications from all suppliers and not just those that submitted Phase 1 successful bids.

The upper-limit for this competition is £120k. It is anticipated that bids will be in the range of £30k to £100k and will be rejected if they exceed £120k.

Proposals must include costed participation at the following two DASA events: – a collaboration event – and a demonstration event. Both events will be held in the UK.

Exclusions

For this competition DASA are not interested in proposals that:

• are consultancy, paper-based studies or literature reviews
• offer solutions that do not provide significant benefit to defence
• cannot demonstrate proof-of-concept / feasibility within the Phase 1 timescale
• only offer minor improvements in existing high technology readiness level (TRL) (TRL 6+) technologies
• are demonstrations of off-the-shelf products requiring no experimental development
• are identical re-submission of a previous bid to DASA or MOD without modification
• offer no real long-term prospect of integration into defence capabilities
• offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions
• are not compliant with extant legislation, e.g. health, safety and environmental