Innovation Exchange challenge: Communications with Minimum Infrastructure

In order to take advantage of a thriving science and technology ecosystem, and the opportunities this presents for national security, Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known as MI6, are looking for creative, interesting and novel solutions to some current technology challenges.

This experiment is the first of its kind for SIS, starting with a selection of challenges. It is designed to encourage non-traditional suppliers to work in the national security space – especially start-ups and SMEs.

The UK Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), deploys officers globally. Their work often requires officers to be on the move and to cover large distances. Officer safety is paramount, from generic crime to more targeted threats such as state actor interference, and officers must be contactable at all times. This requires a communications device. Communicating either locally or back to the UK becomes problematic when cellular services are patchy, or when officers are working in disaster areas or war zones.

SIS are looking to work with industry and academia to design and develop a communications system that can operate anywhere globally with limited reliance on local infrastructure. They are looking for innovative and new ideas. The communications system should be able to do everything a modern mobile phone could do – send messages, voice calls and video calls. It must be easy to use since officers may be in a high-stress situation that will reduce their ability to follow complicated instructions, and it is important that any messaging or signals are discrete.