DASA Competition: Novel Disruptive Science Impacting Future Defence and Security

Funding to identify and develop novel, early stage research ideas that may have a significant and disruptive impact on the future of Defence.

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD). The Accelerator funds research that offers a high potential benefit to defence and security in the UK and which thereby supports UK economic growth and prosperity.

This DASA competition is being funded by the by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) to support disruptive, early-stage concepts, technologies or ideas that may disrupt the future of Defence. The call is seeking proposals that may act as the basis for further research within the Defence Science and Technology Futures (DSTF) Programme.

This competition will be run over two phases. In Phase 1, DASA is seeking low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) ideas (TRL 1-2) from any discipline that may disrupt current ways of innovating, which could in the future either benefit defence or security, or form the basis of countering a threat.

Projects supported through this competition should:

• Take one or more novel very low TRL idea(s), as identified in the proposal and further develop them to better understand the science behind them and their potential to form a disruptive technology in the future. This must be through some elements of experimentation, testing, modelling or simulation (literature studies alone will be considered to be non-compliant).
• Develop concepts of how the idea might be deployed in the future – for example, could it only be used in particular circumstances or could it have impact across Defence and Security?
• Describe the circumstances in which the idea might be disruptive and the potential impact on the future of Defence or Security.

The ideas sought for this competition do not need to fulfil any current Defence or Security requirement.

The outcome from Phase 1 of this competition is anticipated to be a pool of novel science and technology ideas and concepts that may disrupt the defence landscape and have the potential to lead to radical change.

Upon completion of Phase 1, DASA will seek to direct further funds to a number of projects deemed to offer the most potential for Defence or Security. Phase 2 will only be open to suppliers funded in Phase 1. The most promising suppliers may be allocated funding to further mature their ideas or concepts.