Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) Competition: Space to Innovate Campaign

Funding for a series of challenge ‘drops’ to support proposals for novel and innovative future space technologies that will develop the UK Defence and Security space capabilities.

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is part of the UK Government’s Ministry of Defence. The Accelerator helps public and private innovators develop their ideas into exploitable products and services for defence and security customers, and experiments with novel methodology and innovative approaches to help accelerate the delivery of the best solutions.

DASA has launched this competition as part of its Space to Innovate Campaign, a series of challenge ‘drops’ that will find and fund solutions to major space hurdles. The objective is to fund research into space technologies that may not otherwise be developed within the civil space industry. This will address a set of specific problems in the space domain, as outlined in the campaign challenges.

Funded projects are expected to achieve at least Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 (proof-of-concept) by the end of contract but can potentially reach up to TRL 6 (demonstration in a relevant environment) in later drops. Solutions currently at or above TRL 6 in a civilian environment may be eligible for funding where the technology requires development to operate in a Defence and Security environment (potentially lowering the TRL).