New DASA call – Ensuring information assurance to provide data advantage for UK Defence

What are innovation focus areas?

Whilst the Open Call welcomes a wide range of innovative ideas to solve problems faced by our defence and security customers, DASA is keen to share insight on specific topics of interest. Innovative solutions for any innovation focus area should be channelled via the Open Call for Innovation.

Each innovation focus area has a unique identifier to help us ensure that your innovation is seen by the appropriate parts of Government. You will be able to choose this identifier when you submit your bid and should use it in all communications with DASA.

The following information is from this link.

Military Systems Information Assurance (MSIA)

Unique Identifier IFA030

Military Systems Information Assurance (MSIA) is a project element within the Cyber Defence Enhancement through Life Project. Funded as part of the UK Government’s Integrated Review of security, defence, development and foreign policy (IR) to modernise UK forces across domains. The IR has highlighted the importance of Cyber defence for the UK Critical National Infrastructure and Defence.

The Defence Enterprise is an expansive, diverse and continually changing construct with a large element of Operational Technologies, many of which are legacy. This presents a large and varied attack surface. With the increasing cyber threat to UK, Information Security is essential. It is therefore critical that the UK understands and adapts to future ways of securing data in order to provide Information Advantage and safeguard critical data.

The purpose of this challenge is to identify, develop and accelerate new and/or novel technical solutions for Information Assurance. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Innovative ways to provide assured information flow across both high bandwidth, reliable, corporate/enterprise level networks, and low bandwidth, intermittent comms channels.
• Innovative ways of securing data at rest.
• Innovative methods for Authentication.
• Securing information in a Cloud environment, i.e. to secure data at rest and whilst being processed; this will focus on end user/system implementation as opposed to relying on the underlying cloud infrastructure.
• Novel cryptographic key management solutions.

Whilst, historically, these solutions have often involved cryptographic based approaches this challenge seeks alternative technologies and approaches that may not use cryptography.

We are seeking proposals that:

• Offer non-conventional technical approaches to Information Assurance solutions
• Will either involve novel uses of existing Cryptographic techniques or alternative, novel, non-cryptographic solutions
• Address either current or future security issues

Proposals will be assessed on the likelihood of successful adoption within a military arena, therefore proposals should address either current or future security issues. Proposals can apply to all types of MoD systems from ships, vehicles, aircraft, dismounted soldiers, Command and Control systems up to MOD Headquarters, and all associated networks and cloud-based environments. Proposals, surmounting the challenges of the end user operating environment, can focus on specific problems (for example the security of a vehicle platform) or general systems (for example, bearer networks).

Successful proposals may provide a range of benefits including enhanced security, or increased efficiency and usability, whilst retaining existing security levels. Whilst this competition is not targeting specific issues, a successful proposal should be clear on how its novel solution or application could provide potential benefits.

We are not seeking proposals that:

• Offer demonstrations of off-the-shelf products requiring no experimental development (unless applied in a novel way to the challenge)
• Are Literature Reviews
• Offer no real long-term prospect of integration into defence and security capabilities
• Offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions
• Offer the current traditional approach to using Cryptography

Funding for this IFA will be split by Technical Readiness Level (TRL). Less mature, lower TRL (2 – 4) proposals will be considered an Emerging Innovations while more developed, higher TRL (4 – 6) proposals will be considered a Rapid Impact:

• Lower TRL, Emerging Innovations proposals should bid for funding up to £150K to provide a proof of concept within a 6 month contract.
• Higher TRL, Rapid Impact proposals should bid for funding up to £350K to provide a concept demonstrator within a 12 month contract. Government Furnished Assets (GFA) are not available for this IFA so bidders may need to simulate a network/data to develop and prove their technology.

This IFA is open for submissions within the DASA Open Call. (See Para 9.1). Further cycles may be advertised.

To increase the impact and likelihood of exploitation, the output of these proposals may be shared across UK government as appropriate. Furthermore, as deemed appropriate, proposal outputs may be shared with partner nation governments including Five Eyes (FVEYS) partners nations under the rights secured under DEFCON 705. However, DASA reserves the right to apply an alternative Intellectual Property contractual conditions if individual circumstances dictate, to be mutually agreed with you before a contract is awarded. Under the terms of DEFCON 705 any intellectual property generated under the contract belongs to the contractor. In return, the funding Authority obtains a set of rights to use the delivered technical information and associated intellectual property for specified purposes.

Communities Leading in Tourism is a personal leadership programme which will bring like-minded individuals together to maximise community-led tourism recovery and opportunities.

This online course is open to individuals from community and tourism organisations across Scotland. You must apply through the Social Enterprise Academy.

This course is fully funded. However, there will be a cost in terms of your time away from your business/organisation.

This course is part of the Scottish Tourism Leadership Programme, supported by the Scottish Government in response to COVID-19.

There are up to 30 places available. The programme begins in January and is open for applications from 13 October 2021. The deadline to apply is midday on Wednesday 8 December 2021.

Find out more and apply at the Social Enterprise Academy.

Made in Scotland aims to raise the international profile of Scotland-based artists through the promotion of their work at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with specific focus given to showcasing the work to international promoters and programmers and developing onward opportunities.

Funding is available to help support the presentation at the Fringe of new or existing artistically ambitious work with strong onward potential as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase. All applicants should be considering their international ambitions for the show being presented.

The total budget available for the Made in Scotland 2022 programme will be in the region of £300k.

There is no minimum or maximum monetary level that you can apply for, and given the broad range in scale of applications received it is not possible to advise on a typical award level. Please note that in the past the budget has supported 15-20 awards.

Made in Scotland funding should not be your only source of funding. For guidance, in 2020 the average request applied for approximately 55% of their overall budget. You should only apply for costs that are eligible, as indicated in the guidelines.

Applications are now open and will close at 12 noon, 23 November 2021.

Find out more and apply at Creative Scotland.

The Department for Transport (DfT), in partnership with Connected Places Catapult, is offering Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG 2021) to fully fund proof-of-concept research projects in support of innovative ideas or concepts that facilitate a better transport system.

The TRIG Programme aims to;

• Foster innovation to improve UK transport.
• Generate growth in the transport sector.
• Build links between policy teams in DfT and innovators.

While the competition encourages applications with innovative ideas across all areas of transport as part of our traditional open call, some grant funding has been ringfenced for projects addressing COVID-19 Recovery and Resilient Transport Systems, Maritime Decarbonisation and Future of Freight challenges.

Eligibility and Scope

Under TRIG 2021, SMEs and universities can apply for a grant of either ≤£30k or ≤£100k. We anticipate awarding at least 50 grants in total. For the £30k grant, we would expect applicants to progress their technology from TRL 2 (basic research) to TRL 4 (proof of concept/small scale prototype). For the larger £100k grant within the Future of Freight challenge, we would expect technologies to start at TRL 2 and progress to a higher level of technological development – TRL 5 – by the end of the project delivery period. This will include operational testing of the technology within its intended environment.

In order to apply to this scheme, you must be:

• Based in the UK or have a UK registered office; and
• A business or university of any size

For more information on the scope of this competition, please refer to the Grant Specification document.

Why Apply?

TRIG competitions are designed to de-risk the development of novel technology and will support the most promising and beneficial products as they launch within their intended markets.

Key features of TRIG:

• It is 100% funded
• Technical and commercial oversight is available from DfT, Connected Places Catapult and their partners
• Participation in workshop activities with other projects and Government organisations is encouraged
• Follow on support is available from the Connected Places Catapult, including the chance for SMEs participating to enter their SME development programme
• The opportunity to take part in showcasing events designed to attract onward investment and collaboration.

How to apply

Please visit our community platform to apply by midnight on the 7^th November. If you would like assistance in completing the online application form, please let us know and we will be pleased to help.

In helping you prepare your application, please read through the following documentation (which is available by clicking the above link).

• Application Guidance
• Grant Specification
• Scoring Criteria
• Grant Funding Agreement – terms & conditions
• Privacy Notice

Read more here.

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is pleased to launch a new Market Exploration called Tackling E-Scooter and E-Bike enabled crime, which aims to explore innovative solutions that enhance the ability of UK Police to prevent E-Scooters and E-Bikes from being used to commit criminal acts.

This Market Exploration is being run on behalf of the Home Office (HO) and seeks technologies from across the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) spectrum.

Do you have an innovative solution? Read the full Market Exploration now and submit your idea

Read more about this Market Exploration and get hints and tips on submitting your idea, here.  This opportunity closes on the 9th November 2021.

 

Opportunities to partner with businesses and organisations across Europe in a range of areas including:

• Communication services
• Installation, operation and maintenance of wind turbines
• Distribution of toys
• Distribution of handcrafted stone products
• Distribution of paints & enamels
• Distribution of footwear
• Manufacture of travel bags
• Freight-forwarding, customs, logistics & distribution services
• Engineering, electrical engineering & construction
• Manufacture of finger-jointed panels and flooring
• Healthcare consultancy
• Distribution of anti-fogging glass/plastic
• Biotechnology software development
• Waste to hydrogen/biomass conversion
• Protection of plants
• Reprocessing of lithium batteries
• Distribution of rope and nets
• Manufacture of high-end sanitisers
• Distribution of cleaning products

Find out more at https://www.enterprise-europe-scotland.com/content/clickhandler/viewer/?t=2&s=2598&z=20210919

The Bravo Drop of the Space to Innovate Campaign is now open for proposals. This Drop focuses on solving two challenge sets:

Challenge 1: Novel sensing and Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR) technologies

This challenge seeks to develop technologies and demonstrations of novel sensing modes for the space domain for military and intelligence applications; both space-to-ground and space-to-space.

Novel modes in this context could include, but are not limited to:

• non-traditional space sensing bands (e.g. ultraviolet)
• gravimetric imaging of the space environment
• sparse aperture imaging technologies and processing
• use of novel materials (e.g. meta-materials or graphene) for space sensing applications

Challenge 2: Novel approaches to significantly improve signal-to-noise performance of space-related communications, sensing, identification or tracking capabilities for use in Defence and/or Security applications.

This challenge seeks to identify novel technologies, techniques, processes or algorithms that offer improvements to the overall signal-to-noise characteristics of electromagnetic systems used for Defence and/or Security space domain applications.

DASA is interested in such methods for enhancing the performance of systems such as electro-optical, infra-red or radio frequency systems for communications, Earth Observation or space domain awareness (SDA) applications. Areas for consideration may include (as examples, but are not limited to) the following areas:

• novel technologies to support, or be applied to, either ground-based or on-orbit capabilities: these could apply to space-to-space, ground-to-space and / or space-to-ground segments
• exploration of novel signal processing algorithms and techniques to acquire (and exploit) improved signal response or a reduction in noise performance
• novel hardware and / or software technologies and processes to enhance signal detection and / or data collection performance of imaging, sensing or communications
• exploration of novel radio frequency (RF) systems to detect, monitor or communicate with space objects in any / all orbital regimes

If you think your business has the solution to either of these challenges, submit a proposal now at GOV.UK.

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million for game-changing and commercially viable research and development innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy.

This competition is open to single applicants and collaborations.

To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered:

• business of any size
• research and technology organisation (RTO)
• carry out your research and development (R&D) project activity in the UK
• intend to commercially exploit the project results from the UK
• be or involve at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME).

Find out more and apply at UK Research and Innovation.