Space To Innovate- New UK Gov Opportunity

The UK Government’s, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) Space Systems Programme has announced it is seeking proposals to aid UK Defence and Security in developing future space science and technologies.

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) Space to Innovate Campaign was established in 2019 as a space themed DASA competition.The Space to Innovate Campaign was set up to aid UK Defence and Security to develop future space science and technologies. As the third drop in the Space to Innovate Campaign, Charlie Drop, follows on from Alpha Drop and Bravo Drop, which between them addressed four challenges deemed to be of relevance to the Defence use of space. These challenges covered a large scope including visualisation tools for exploiting data from multiple sources, characterisation techniques, intelligence, surveillance & reconnaissance (ISR) technologies and improving signal-to-noise performance of communications and tracking.

What Are They Looking For?

• New ways to achieve fine resolution collection for intelligence, surveillance & reconnaissance (ISR)
• Technologies and techniques to alert, protect and defend satellites
• Satellite and ground segment technologies for future Defence and Security operations

What Funding Is Available?
The total funding available for Charlie Drop is £1.5 million (excl VAT). We expect to fund between 3 and 12 proposals over a 24 month period.

The initial £1.5 million for the Charlie Drop competition is funded by MOD Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA). Funding from other MOD or wider government stakeholders may become available over the duration of the competition; if so, this will be reflected in a revised version of the competition document.

Proposals from Charlie Drop that are deemed to be ‘fundable not funded’ will be available for funding by any UK government stakeholder up to one year after the outcome decision is released to bidders. For the purpose of this competition your bid may be shared with experts in other government departments.

Follow On Work
Once the initial contract is completed there will be a decision point where the Authority will decide whether it wishes to progress this work further. Follow-on work will be considered on its own individual merits and is not subject to further DASA competition processes.

Submission Deadline
12.00 BST Midday on Wednesday 12 July 2023.

How To Submit
Via the DASA Online Submission Service for which you will require an account. Only proposals submitted through the DASA Online Submission Service will be accepted.

Find Out More

You can find out more information about the opportunity here.