DASA Competition to Screen and Analyse Hazardous ChemBio Materials with Novel Technologies

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is part of the UK Government’s Ministry of Defence (MOD). 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 is running this competition with funding from the MOD and the US Department of Defense (DOD) via the Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate (IWTSD). The competition seeks proposals that can address challenges associated with screening for, the preservation of sample/evidence, and the attribution of hazardous chemical and biological (ChemBio) materials. New technology options or technical approaches could ultimately help both the successful identification of material and directly/indirectly aid in bringing perpetrators to justice.

It is anticipated that proposals will address either the screening, collection or forensic exploitation challenge, rather than covering multiple requirements. Key current limitations of applying screening, collection and forensic exploitation technologies to these challenges include:

• Collection technologies can sample materials from surfaces but do not protect and stabilise the sampled materials for storage and transport (ie without cold chain support that are often unavailable in austere environments or in a non-permissive operational context).
• Screening technologies are predominantly focused on identifying specific (known) or well-characterised ChemBio Hazards. Screening for a wider range of materials is restricted due to the limitations of handheld or field based screening technologies being able to detect a broad range of undefined compounds. The ability to detect a broader range of chemicals requires significant laboratory equipment/expertise/time.
• Forensic exploitation technologies are in their infancy in the field of attribution and often require data intensive approaches taking weeks or months to undertake. New ways of working that expedite the process and/or identify new signatures to enable the source material to be attributed across the timeframes traditionally associated with analysis (ie hours, days) are required.

The funders are seeking novel and innovative technologies and approaches that will overcome these limitations and enhance the range of tools available when undertaking an investigation following an overseas or Homeland ChemBio event. It is expected that these tools will ultimately enhance the capabilities of the International Community to contend with many technical challenges associated with sample screening, collection (including storage and transportation) and forensic exploitation for attribution purposes following a ChemBio event.

Submissions are welcome from all organisation types and individuals, with no nationality restrictions.

In Phase 1 of the competition, funding is available to support multiple emerging innovations (low technology readiness level (TRL)) to demonstrate proof-of-concept. It is anticipated that there will be a second phase of this competition with additional funding, which will seek to further develop promising solutions from Phase 1 as well as identify and accelerate other solutions at a higher TRL.

Up to £1 million is available for Phase 1, with a maximum of £100,000 for each funded proposal. If successful, contracts will be awarded for a maximum duration of 12 months.

Applications should be submitted via the DASA submission service by the 17 January 2022 deadline.