Home Office: Contracts for Innovation - Knife detection technologies, phase 1
The Home Office seeks to develop systems capable of automatically detecting knives concealed on a person, at a distance, to be used by police forces.
Opportunity Details
When
Registration Opens
17/06/2024
Registration Closes
08/07/2024
Award
The Home Office expect to fund up to 4 projects. The maximum value of a single proposal is £600,000 including VAT.
Organisation
The Home Office
The Home Office is running a Contracts for Innovation competition to develop systems capable of automatically detecting knives concealed on a person, at a distance, to be used by police forces.
The systems must be able to detect knives in the presence of commonly carried items, including but not limited to keys, wallets, mobile phones, and tablets. Systems can either be fixed during operation and capable of scanning a defined area (region) of space containing one or more subjects, or capable of being carried and operated by a single police officer for at least the duration of a shift (8 hours).
Initial, paper based feasibility studies (technology readiness level (TRL) 1) and technology concepts (TRL 2) are assumed to be completed prior to the commencement of this competition. In phase 1 the Home Office are looking to for the development and delivery of a prototype at a minimum. This prototype must be ready for limited initial testing in a controlled environment to prove the concept (TRL 4). If applicants already have a prototype, your plan for this Phase 1 should include steps for further development to maximise system performance, and a clear route to testing in a controlled environment and an operational trial if appropriate.
This is phase 1 of a potential 2 phase competition. The decision to proceed with phase 2 will depend on the outcomes from phase 1 and assessment of a separate application into a subsequent potential phase 2 competition. Only the successful applicants from phase 1 will be invited to apply to take part in a potential phase 2.
Any adoption and implementation of a solution from this competition would be subject to a separate, possibly competitive, procurement exercise. This competition does not cover the purchase of any solution.
Proposed activity for this competition can include prototyping, demonstrating, testing and validation of new or improved products or processes in environments representative of real-life operating conditions. The primary objective is to make further technical improvements on products or processes that are not substantially set. Your application must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively to research and development (R&D) services, including solution exploration and design. R&D can also include prototyping and field-testing the product or service. This lets you incorporate the results of your exploration and design and demonstrate that you can produce in quantity to acceptable quality standards.
To find out more, see the tender notification here, and sign up to the Home Office e-sourcing portal to get full access to the competition details.
If you have a query which is not answered here, or require further support, please contact collaborativeprocurement@homeoffice.gov.uk.
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To lead a project, you can:
- be an organisation of any size
- work alone or with other organisations as subcontractors
Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only.
Projects must:
- end by 31/05/2025
- have costs of no more than £600,000, inclusive of VAT
- enable working with technical and operational partners to conduct lab-based and operational trials when appropriate. Operational trials must be held in the UK.
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The aim of the competition is to develop systems capable of automatically detecting knives concealed on a person, at a distance, to be used by police forces.
The systems must be able to detect knives in the presence of commonly carried items, including but not limited to keys, wallets, mobile phones, and tablets.
Systems can either be fixed during operation and capable of scanning a defined area (region) of space containing one or more subjects, or capable of being carried and operated by a single police officer for at least the duration of a shift (8 hours).
A fixed system should ideally work at a distance of 2m to 6m, while a body-worn or handheld system should work at a distance of approximately 2m. The Home Office is prepared to fund the further development of systems to meet these requirements, even if their detection range currently falls outside of these distances.
Further information on the scope is available via the Home Office e-sourcing portal.
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The scope of this requirement is as follows:
- Only physical knife detection systems are to be developed
- The systems should be self-contained providing a clear alarm when a knife is detected
- Systems that are specially designed or specially and significantly modified for the detection of concealed knives. This means that systems must be able to detect knives in the presence of commonly carried items, including but not limited to keys, wallets, mobile phones, and tablets.
- This also means that the prototype system must perform better than a random classifier when its true positive rate is plotted against its false positive rate. Specific performance requirements will be developed with potential end-users during Phase 1, and it is expected that successful projects will deliver systems with a high true positive detection rate, coupled with a low false alarm rate.
The following are out of scope:
- Exclusively software-based or virtual systems, necessitating the use of pre-existing infrastructure (third-party integration)
- Concept of operations, training or best practice guidance without an accompanying physical detection system
- Systems that are on the market already and available to customers
Further information on the scope is available via the Home Office e-sourcing portal.
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Theme 1 – A system that is fixed during operation and is capable of scanning a defined area (region) of space containing one or more subjects.
Theme 2 – A system that is capable of being carried and operated by a single user for at least the duration of a shift (8 hours)
Related programme
Contracts for Innovation
Enabling innovators to work directly with the public sector to develop new technologies and processes.