The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition is seeking innovative technologies for Phase 2 of a Wide-Area Biosensor program that aims to find an improved way to rapidly detect and locate hazardous biological agents in the field.
DASA is looking for innovative technologies that can sense, locate and report the presence of deposited biological hazards in real-time or which can demonstrate a clear and achievable pathway to this goal. Future fielded systems would be deployed by a range of end-users including trained military specialists and civilian first responders, enabling detection and reporting on select biological agents in real-time. Such a system could also assess wide-area decontamination needs.
The focus of this effort is on sensors and data processing/visualisation, not on hosting platforms (such as remotely controlled or unmanned systems) or the integration of existing sensors upon platforms. Technologies that can detect the hazard at a lower confidence level and then cue deployment of a high-confidence sensor will also be considered.
By the end of Phase 2, DASA will require suppliers to provide initial validation of their technology in a demonstration environment against a battery of standard test samples provided by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
Participation in Phase 1 of is not mandatory to qualify for application to this current phase; however potential submitters are encouraged to review the previous competition and the proposals funded.
£700k is available to fund Phase 2, which closes on 1 June 2020.
Join the Defence and Security Accelerator for a dial-in Phase 2 Launch Call on 21 April 2020, 1pm to 2pm BST. The competition team will provide a short briefing on the Biosensing Across Wide Areas Phase 2 competition followed by an open forum Q&A session.
