Novel Disruptive Science Impacting Future Defence and Security
This DASA competition aims to identify and develop novel, early stage research ideas that may have a significant and disruptive impact.
DASA has launched a new Themed Competition: Novel Disruptive Science Impacting Future Defence and Security.
Up to £750,000 total funding is available for disruptive, early stage ideas and concepts that may be used as the basis for further research within the Defence Science and Technology Futures (DSTF) Programme.
This is a two-phase competition which aims to identify and develop novel, early stage research ideas that may have a significant and disruptive impact on the future of Defence or Security. A disruptive impact is something that radically alters how we do things – this can be positive (e.g. a new capability becomes available) or negative (e.g. a new type of threat arises).
This competition is funded by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
The outcome from Phase 1 of this competition is anticipated to be a pool of novel Science and Technology (S&T) ideas / concepts that may be disruptive. These ideas / concepts may be used as the basis for further research within the Defence Science and Technology Futures (DSTF) Programme.
Upon completion of Phase 1, we will seek to direct further funds to a number of projects where the Phase 1 work has been deemed to have the greatest potential future impact on Defence or Security. Phase 2 will only be open to those suppliers funded in Phase 1. It will enable continuation of research on the most promising ideas, with the relevant suppliers being allocated a proportion of a further £750k (ex VAT) to further mature their ideas / concepts.
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DASA submissions are welcome from the private sector, academia, individuals (i.e. sole traders) and Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs). In most cases there are no nationality restrictions, however DASA individual competition documents will detail any necessary restrictions.
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We are interested in novel, very low Technical Readiness Level (TRL) S&T ideas which could in the future either significantly benefit Defence or Security, or form the basis of understanding or countering a new and significant adversarial threat. We would like you to provide us with an exciting flavour of what might be possible and be disruptive. Your proposal should include evidence of:
- creative ideas / concepts / technology that have the potential to cause a significant game-changing or disruptive impact on Defence or Security
- ideas which are initially at an early stage of development (equivalent to TRL 1-2)
- ideas that have a theoretical basis supported by reasoned explanation
- the development of ideas through research to understand their potential to be disruptive in the future
- the use of aspects of experimentation, simulation or modelling in undertaking the research
- development of concepts for how novel ideas might be deployed in the future to become either an opportunity for or threat to Defence or Security
- clear demonstration of how the proposed work applies to Defence or Security
The value of each submission must be for a fixed amount of £50k. Failure to submit a proposal for this amount will result in the proposal being sifted out as non-compliant.
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Tuesday 31 October 2023 at 10:30 GMT – A dial-in session will provide 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. To get the most out of this session, we strongly advise that you attend with a good knowledge of the competition document.