Innovation in Support of Operations

Key Features

This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) Innovation in Support of Operations competition is seeking proposals that can make a real-world difference, fast and at scale.

Programme:     DASA

Award:     Share of up to £2 million

Opens: 18th Jul 2024

Closes: 10th Sep 2024

! This scheme is now closed

Overview

This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) Innovation in Support of Operations competition is seeking proposals that can make a real-world difference, fast and at scale. DASA are looking for scalable proposals, designed for manufacture, at market-leading prices, that can be demonstrated in a relevant environment three months from the date of contract in support of future contracting decisions.

This is a rapid, multiple cycle competition. The competition will run for three cycles, open continuously from 18 July 2024 until 3 December 2024. Proposals submitted by the cycle deadline will follow the DASA “How your proposal will be assessed” process with contracting immediately afterwards for successful proposals.

DASA reserves the right to amend challenge areas between cycles as operational needs evolve.

Further to this multiple cycle DASA competition, viable proposals may be taken to higher TRLs and/or manufacture phase the Authority (Secretary of State for Defence, acting on behalf of the Crown). In this circumstance the Authority will undertake appropriate procurement activity to ensure value for money and subject to any applicable Regulations that may pertain.

Scope

For this competition we are seeking technology output and demonstration at technology readiness level (TRL) 6 as a minimum no later than three months of the contract start date.

You will be required to conduct demonstrations in the UK for the MOD customer. These demonstrations must be self-supporting and are not to require MOD assets or support to deliver.

This competition is designed to identify innovations that could potentially be deployed, at an appropriate scale, in an operational theatre within 12 months. This will be a key focus of our assessment.

Expression of interest

DASA invite Expressions of Interest where there are sensitive questions that you would prefer to pose either about the competition or the scope of your proposal. DASA has a team of Innovation Partners that can provide you with support in working with DASA. If you want to submit a maximum 500 word expression of interest we encourage you to speak to your local DASA Innovation Partner.

Your expression of interest should include:

  • what your idea is
  • which challenge you are interested in
  • what problem does it solve for defence and how innovative it is

Please send one idea per expression of interest.

Expressions of Interest must be submitted to your DASA Innovation Partner at least three weeks before a cycle closing to get a response for the current cycle.

Industry collaboration survey during proposal preparation

DASA encourage collaboration between organisations 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 in a collaboration, please complete the supplier collaboration survey and your details (including your business email address) may be circulated among other potential suppliers who have completed the survey and are interested in collaborating. The sharing of details will only be done after an initial screening process has taken place, we reserve the right to not share all details.

Our areas of interest are;

  • Novel and enhanced scale complex manufacture of materiel
  • Autonomous system navigation and applique options
  • Wide-area sense and detect
  • Innovative solutions for minefield breaching

DASA reserves the right to amend challenge areas between cycles as operational needs evolve.

These challenges are designed to identify innovations that could be deployed, at an appropriate scale, in operational areas within 12 months.

It is therefore essential that proposals include not just what is proposed, but also demonstrate that viable solutions could be manufactured and scaled up for employment in a relevant timeframe.

To be eligible to submit a proposal into this competition you must be a UK business registered at Companies House, with UK ownership. You must be based in the UK and intending to carry out project development activity in the UK.

A key assessment criteria for this competition will be around robustness of the supply chain. Your proposal must detail overseas supply chain dependencies that if disrupted would impact the ability to deliver your proposed solution at scale, and if appropriate how these dependencies could be mitigated.

Competition Challenges

This competition has four challenges. As well as brand new innovations, this competition welcomes proposals that outline an innovative approach to re-using existing products, which may not yet have been tested for these purposes, but which it is expected could be successfully applied to these challenges.

  • Challenge 1: Novel and enhanced scale complex manufacture of materiel

  • Challenge 2: Autonomous system navigation and applique options

  • Challenge 3: Wide-area sense and detect

  • Challenge 4: Innovative solutions for minefield breaching

For further information on each challenge, see briefing notes here

Eligibility

DASA want novel ideas to benefit end-users working in Defence and Security. Your proposal should include evidence of:

  • how market-leading unit price and scalable manufacture is built into the proposal from the outset, clearly benchmarked against existing market solutions or closest substitute capabilities and how both the output and the manufacturing techniques can be demonstrated at not more than three months from contract award
  • innovation or a creative approach
  • clear demonstration of how the proposed work applies to a defence and security context, and how it can be exploited in phases of development beyond this DASA competition

Exclusions

DASA are not interested in proposals that:

  • Cannot achieve TRL 6 minimum within the three-month contract period. Any proposals that are judged to be TRL 5 and below will be viewed as non-compliant and sifted out. Please refer to the TRL guide or contact a DASA Innovation Partner for guidance here
  • have already been sold into the UK Defence Marketplace unless adapted or repurposed in an innovative way and this is made clear in your proposal
  • are UAV Platforms
  • rely on rare or exclusive means of manufacture that would preclude deployment at an appropriate scale in an operational threatre within 12 months – the ability to exercise existing industry is likely to be important
  • constitute consultancy, paper-based studies or literature reviews which just summarise the existing literature without any view of future innovation
  • are 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 capabilities
  • offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions in price, while maintaining enough performance to be relevant
  • Integration or AI synthesis of existing data sets without bringing in new information to the user as the primary output

Funding Costs

Funded proposals are expected to be in the range of £50,000 to £200,000.

A number of proposals may be funded.

Interested in applying for this competition?

Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.