Guidance

Competition Document: Behavioural Analytics Phase 2

Published 11 June 2020

1. Introduction

This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition is seeking proposals that can help UK defence and security to develop capability in ‘Behavioural Analytics’.

Phase 1 of the competition was launched in October 2018 following the publication of the MOD Joint Concept Note 2/18 on Information Advantage which identified Behavioural Analytics as “an emerging analytical capability that will deliver a significant capability advantage for defence and security”.

Phase 1 sought to find and fund novel and innovative ideas at low levels of maturity and provide funding to develop these ideas to proof of concept. £2.4 million of research funding was awarded to 29 suppliers.

Now at Phase 2, this competition has £2 million available to fund multiple proposals to further increase the maturity of innovations in this area. It is not compulsory to have been involved in the previous phase to apply, however, you should make yourself aware of the previous competition and the proposals we funded. It is expected that work for this phase will reach higher maturity than work funded in Phase 1, reaching a minimum of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5-6 by completion.

The total funding available for Phase 2 of this competition is £2M (ex VAT), but individual proposals cannot exceed £250K (ex VAT). If successful, contracts will be awarded for a maximum duration of 12 months. Contracts will be awarded to start in October 2020 and finish no later than October 2021. Funding will be provided over two financial years, and will be divided equally with an upper limit of £125K FY20-21 and FY21-22. The total upper funding limit per proposal is £250K.

The competition closes on 13 August 2020 at midday (BST).

2. Competition Scope

2.1 Background

This competition addresses the need to understand the identities, interests, motivations and intentions of individuals, groups and networks in order to achieve tactical, strategic or operational behavioural effect. It focusses specifically on behavioural analytics which is defined here as context-specific insights, derived from data, into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of individual, group and population behaviour, enabling reliable predictions about how they are likely to act in the future. The vast amount of data generated by humans offers enormous potential to change how scientists can observe and understand behaviour in order to achieve behavioural effect. Therefore, new and innovative theories, methods, models and tools are required to enable UK defence and security to harness the value from data and develop capability in behavioural analytics.

Achieving the required level of nuanced understanding in future is expected to be challenging, but increasingly more important. This competition is one of several complementary research activities that support the development of a behavioural analytic capability fit for the future UK defence and security operating environment.

2.2 Scope

Following the progress of Phase 1, Phase 2 seeks to fund further development from proof of concept research into demonstrations that can show the art of the possible against challenges faced by defence and security practitioners.

We are looking for theoretical and technological developments, beyond proof of concept, to result in working models, tools and techniques that can be verified and validated against data sets with relevance to the defence and security operating environment.

Where possible we will attempt to provide use cases and relevant datasets. However, this will depend largely on whether we can identify a specific defence user for the proposed innovation. Even where an end user can be identified provision of use cases and data may be restricted due to security classification issues.

In order to help to facilitate the identification of possible end users, proposals should be as explicit as possible in terms of where and how their innovations could be employed within defence and security. This should include explanation of precisely what inputs would be desired from end users, including, but not limited to, use cases and user data sources. Suppliers are encouraged to detail in their proposal any prior or existing engagement that they may have with defence and security end users.

It is therefore essential that suppliers design and develop their proposals on the basis that no use cases or data can be provided. Any proposal that relies on such information will be rejected.

To help you with your proposal please see the following examples of the future operating environment and the challenges faced by defence:

• The UK Ministry of Defence’s (MODs) Defence Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) publication on ‘Information Advantage’ Joint Concept Note 2/18
• The UK Ministry of Defence’s (MODs) Defence Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) publication on the future operating environment 2035
• The UK Home Office report ‘Countering the terrorist threat: Social and Behavioural Science’
• Honing Defence’s Intellectual Edge, Lock, R., Uttely, M. & Lyall, P. (2011)

As in Phase 1, generic tools for big data and data analytics (such as filtering, storage or pattern recognition) are out of scope unless they are specifically shown to relate to the challenge of understanding or modelling human attitudes and behaviour.

We welcome applications from across a range of disciplines, from psychology and neuroscience to AI and data science, as well as inter-disciplinary research collaborations and perspectives. We also welcome applications from disciplines such as the arts, humanities and social sciences.

3. Competition Challenges

In Phase 2 there are two challenge areas. These challenges will provide solutions to reliably understand and forecast attitudes and behaviours of individuals, groups and populations. It is important to note that these should not be viewed as rigid, singular challenges – they are not mutually exclusive. Your proposal must meet at least one of the challenges, but we welcome bids that address both where appropriate.

3.1 Challenge 1: How can we harness and analyse new sources of data to reliably understand and forecast behaviour in a defence and security context?

We are looking for innovations that not only identify new sources of data but that can analyse this data to draw conclusions that are validated and verifiable.

We want to improve confidence levels in the relationships between data and behaviour (qualitatively and quantitatively) and develop game changing solutions to harness the value from the vast amount of data generated by humans. This involves being able to:

• identify which variables or factors are of most influence on behaviour
• show the correlation between descriptive factors, predictive factors, causal factors, clusters, correlations, mediators and moderators
• show relationships between observed data and extant scientific theories, models and principles
• apply cross-cultural, and cross-generational application of theories, models and principles
• get value from new data types (for example, haptics, audio, visual, physical, biological, psychological, social) that support understanding at the individual, group and / or population levels
• show the value of the combination of different data sources to increase behavioural understanding, such as bio-psycho-social markers. (We are interested in the development of methods for the combination of data from different sources only where this offers insight into understanding human behaviour. Proposals that offer purely mechanistic combination of data only will be considered out of scope)
• use innovative participatory market research concepts (such as value creation mechanisms, redesigned discussion systems, synthetic enhancements)

3.2 Challenge 2: How can we help practitioners to understand and use insights from behavioural analytics in a defence and security context?

This challenge looks at how we can improve usability of results from Behavioural Analytics by an end user to help inform their decision making, including how we can calculate and communicate the relative reliability of the insight derived. It focusses on fundamental questions such as ‘What does useful mean?’, ‘Can I trust this data / advice / forecast?’, ‘What biases underpin these results?’ and from an end user perspective ‘What form of understanding do I really need?’

In this challenge we are interested in proposals that will help:

• explore human capacity, capability and limits to maintaining cognitive clarity when working with human behavioural data and predictive insight
• identify innovative methods for rapid assimilation of complex objective and subjective data, including visualisation and other approaches
• understand the cognitive trade-offs between the retention of an increasing volume of complex data and the ability to make effective and rapid decisions
• explore human-machine teaming to address human limitations and achieve information advantage (understanding, decision-making, tempo of activity and assessment)
• develop interactive information displays capable of enhancing cognitive performance specifically to achieve information advantage
• create ways to support user sense-making, bias recognition and anticipatory or adaptive thinking
• investigate understanding of uncertainty and its presentation in results
• improve the useful visualisation of behavioural insights for multiple and diverse users
• lessen the technical training burden for users of human behavioural data and insights who do not have either a data or social science background

3.3 Clarification of what we want

Your proposal should include:

• detail on what is innovative about your approach
• evidence that the innovation has already reached proof of concept (the foundational narrative) and is ready to be developed in order to reach TRL 5-6 by the end of the contract.
• articulation of the anticipated benefits of the work and identification of any assumptions
• clear demonstration of how the proposed work applies to any defence and security context and it’s explicit relevance to improving actionable understanding and insight into human behaviour
• a defined verification and testing strategy for the innovation to determine ‘fitness for purpose’. This should include a Reliability and Validation (R&V) Logbook, further guidance on this requirement will be provided once contracts have been awarded
• identification of any legal and/or ethical challenges (see Defence research involving human participants (JSP 536)
• consideration about how you will work collaboratively and in an agile manner with your Dstl Technical Partner and end users
• details of your internal review and quality control processes

3.4 Clarification of what we don’t want

For this competition we are not interested in proposals that:

• constitute consultancy, paper-based studies or literature reviews which just summarise the existing literature without any view of future innovation
• are purely algorithmic and do not offer any insights into behaviour
• generic tools for big data and data analytics (such as filtering, storage or pattern recognition) are out of scope unless they are specifically shown to relate to the challenge of understanding or modelling human attitudes and behaviour.
• merge different data sets on the assumption it will add value but have no clear impact on behavioural analytics as a capability
• do not specifically relate to the challenge of deriving understanding and actionable insight into human behaviour from data
• are an identical resubmission of a previous bid to DASA or MOD without modification
• offer demonstrations of off-the-shelf products requiring no experimental development
• offer no real long-term prospect of integration into defence and security capabilities

4. Exploitation

It is important that over the lifetime of DASA competitions, ideas are matured and accelerated towards appropriate end-users to enhance capability. How long this takes will be dependent on the nature and starting point of the innovation. During Phase 2 we will be expecting suppliers to work closely alongside Dstl Technical Partners and end-users to develop an exploitation plan.

In applying to Phase 2, all proposals to DASA should articulate the expected development in technology maturity of the potential solution over the lifetime of the contract and how this relates to improved operational capability against the current known (or presumed) baseline. Your deliverables should be designed to evidence these aspects with the aim of making it accessible for possible collaborators/stakeholders to identify the innovative elements of your proposal in order to consider routes for exploitation. DASA Innovation Partners are available to support you with defence and security context.

You must include some of the following information, to help the assessors understand your exploitation plans to date:

• the intended defence or security users of your final product and whether you have previously engaged with them, their procurement arm or their research and development arm
• the anticipated benefits (for example, in cost, time, improved capability) that your solution will provide to the user
• whether it is likely to be a standalone product or integrated with other technologies or platforms and if so, what these other technologies or platforms are
• expected additional work required beyond the end of the contract to develop an operationally deployable commercial product (for example, “scaling up” for manufacture, cyber security, integration with existing technologies, environmental operating conditions)
• whether the exploitation of the innovation / product requires ongoing support of the contractor e.g. in terms of software support, hosting, licensing, support with setting up the innovation / product to address specific tasks or requirements, and if so, what kind of support is required and an indication of the cost of providing this
• what access to software compiled code, source code and test data will be made available. On delivery, what rights Dstl will have to build on the code themselves.
• wider collaborations and networks you have already developed or any additional relationships you see as a requirement to support exploitation
• any specific legal, ethical, commercial or regulatory considerations for exploitation

Longer-term studies may not be able to articulate exploitation in great detail, but it should always be clear that there is some credible advantage to be gained from the technology development.

5. How to Apply

Proposals for funding to meet these challenges must be submitted by midday BST on 13 August 2020 via the DASA submission service for which you will be required to register.

The total funding available for Phase 2 is £2M (excluding VAT), with individual proposals not exceeding £250K (ex VAT) and funding to be divided equally between financial years with an upper limit of £125K FY20-21 and FY21-22. If successful, contracts awarded will complete no later than October 2021.

Additional funding for additional phases to increase TRL may be available. Any further phases will be subject to a separate competitive commercial process and will be open to applications from all suppliers, not just those that submitted successful Phase 1 or Phase 2 bids.

Further guidance on submitting a proposal is available on the DASA website.

5.1 What your proposal must include

When submitting a proposal, you must complete all sections of the online form, including an appropriate level of technical information to allow assessment of the bid and a completed finances section.

Completed proposals must comply with the financial rules set for this competition. The upper-limit for this competition is £250K (ex VAT). Funding will be provided over two financial years, and will be divided equally (upper limit of £125K for FY20-21 and £125k for FY21-22). Proposals will be rejected if the financial cost exceeds £250K total across FYs.

You are also requested to provide a list of other current or recent government funding you may have received in this area if appropriate, making it clear how this proposal differs from this work.

Phase 2 is looking to advance research from proof of concept to a practical demonstration. You must include in your proposal detail and evidence on the scientific and theoretical basis of your proposal and how it has already achieved evidence of its proof of concept.

A project plan with clear milestones and deliverables must be provided. Deliverables must be well defined and designed to provide evidence of progress against the project plan and the end-point for this phase; they must include an R&V Logbook and a final report. You should plan for attendance (virtual or otherwise) at a kick-off meeting at the start of Phase 2, a demonstration event at the end of Phase 2, as well as monthly reviews with the appointed Technical Partner; all meetings will be in the UK. Your proposal must demonstrate how you will complete all activities/services and provide all deliverables within the competition timescales (12 months). Proposals with any deliverables (including final report) outside the competition timeline will be rejected as non-compliant. The following deliverables must be specified and costed in any proposal submitted for this phase of the competition (failure to list these mandatory deliverables in your proposal will automatically render your proposal non-compliant and disqualify you from funding):

• a kick-off meeting with Dstl (UK) at the start of Phase 2 contracts
• a final demonstration at a customer and supplier attended event (in the UK)
• a final full-rights technical report as well as a Limited Rights version of the technical report
• all software, including both complied code and source code, developed under this phase with supporting software documentation
• all datasets created and/or used in this phase together with supporting documentation and the means to recreate them (i.e. all software and relevant documentation for dataset generation)

During the course of the projects it is anticipated that there will be opportunities for suppliers to join in with collaborative demonstrations of technology, sprints and hackathons. These events should not be costed into your project plan and attendance at these will be at your own expense. All events will be in the UK. Monthly progress reports will be expected.

A resourcing plan must also be provided that identifies, where possible, the nationalities of proposed research workers that you intend working on this phase. In the event of proposals being recommended for funding, the DASA reserves the right to undertake due diligence checks including the clearance of proposed research workers. Please note that this process will take as long as necessary and could take up to 6 weeks in some cases for non-UK nationals.

You must identify any ethical / legal / regulatory factors within your proposal and how the associated risks will be managed, including break points in the project if approvals are not received. Any analysis or experimentation involving human participants must acquire approval from the MOD Research Ethics Committee (MODREC). To understand if your proposal is likely to require MODREC please consult JSP536. MODREC approvals can take up to 5 months therefore you should plan your work programme accordingly. If you are unsure if your proposal will need to apply for MODREC approval, then please contact DASA for further guidance.

You must include details on how you will verify and validate your innovation.

In addition, requirements for access to Government Furnished Assets (GFA), for example, information, equipment, materials and facilities, should be included in your proposal. DASA cannot guarantee that GFA will be available. The Government Data Ethics Framework should be used to guide the appropriate use of data to inform policy and service design.

Failure to provide any of the above listed will automatically render your proposal non-compliant.

5.2 Export control

All bidders must abide by the export control requirements of their originator country. All relevant export control regulations will apply if a company ultimately wants to sell a developed solution to a foreign entity. All bidders must ensure that they can obtain, if required, the necessary export licences for their proposals and developments, such that they can be supplied to the UK. If you cannot confirm that you can gain the requisite licences, your proposal will be sifted out of the competition. Additionally, if we believe that you will not be able to obtain export clearance, additional checks may be conducted, which may also result in your proposal being sifted out of the competition.

5.3 Public Facing Information

When submitting your proposal, you will be required to include a proposal title and a short abstract. The title and abstract you provide will be used by DASA, and other government departments, to describe the project and its intended outcomes and benefits. It will be used for inclusion at DASA events in relation to this competition and included in documentation such as brochures. The proposal title will also be published in the DASA transparency data on GOV.UK, along with your company name, the amount of funding, and the start and end dates of your contract.

5.4 How your proposal will be assessed

At Stage 1, all proposals will be checked for compliance with the competition document and may be rejected before full assessment if they do not comply. Only those proposals who demonstrate their compliance against the competition scope and DASA mandatory criteria will be taken forward to full assessment. Failure to achieve full compliance against Stage 1 will render your proposal non-compliant and will not be considered any further:

Mandatory Criteria

The proposal outlines how it meets the scope of the competition	Within scope (Pass) / Out of scope (Fail)
The proposal fully explains in all three sections of the DASA submission service how it meets the DASA criteria	Pass/Fail
The proposal clearly details a financial plan, a project plan and a resourcing plan to complete the work proposed in Phase 2, including well defined deliverables and future exploitation plans	Pass/Fail
The proposal identifies the need (or not) for MODREC approval	Pass/Fail
The proposal identifies any GFA required for Phase 2	Pass/Fail
The technology proposed is of technology readiness level (TRL) 3-5	Pass/Fail
The maximum value of the proposal is £250K exclusive of VAT	Pass/Fail
The proposal demonstrates how all research and development activities/services (including delivery of the final report) will be completed no later than October 2021	Pass/Fail
The bidders proposal includes provisions for attendance and participation in the meetings outlined in section 5.1	Pass/Fail
The bidder has obtained the authority to provide unqualified acceptance of the terms and conditions of the Contract	Pass/Fail

Compliant proposals will be assessed against the standard DASA assessment criteria (Desirability, Feasibility and Viability) by subject matter experts from the MOD (including Dstl), other government departments and front-line military commands.

You will not have the opportunity to comment on assessors comments.

DASA reserves the right to disclose on a confidential basis any information it receives from you during the procurement process to any third party engaged by DASA for the specific purpose of evaluating or assisting DASA in the evaluation of your proposal. For the specific purposes of considering additional funding for a competition and onward exploitation opportunities, DASA also reserves the right to share information in your proposal in-confidence with any UK Government Department. In providing such information you consent to such disclosure. Appropriate confidentiality agreements will be put in place.

Further guidance on how your proposal is assessed is available on the DASA website. After assessment, proposals will be discussed at a Decision Conference where, based on the assessments, budget and wider strategic considerations, a decision will be made on the proposals that are recommended for funding.

5.5 Things you should know about DASA contracts

Please read the DASA terms and conditions which contain important information for suppliers. For this competition we will be using the Innovation Standard Contract (ISC), links to the contract here: Terms and Schedules. We will require unqualified acceptance of the terms and conditions. For the avoidance of any doubt, for this Themed Competition we are NOT using the DASA Short Form Contract (SFC).

Funded projects will be allocated a Project Manager (to run the project) and a Technical Partner (as a technical point of contact). In addition, the DASA team will work with you to support delivery and exploitation.

We will use deliverables from DASA contracts in accordance with our rights detailed in the contract terms and conditions.

For this phase/competition, £2M is currently available to fund proposals. There may be occasions where additional funding from other funding lines may subsequently become available to allow us to revisit those proposals deemed suitable for funding but where limitations on funding at the time prevented DASA from awarding a subsequent Contract. In such situations, DASA reserves the right to keep such proposals in reserve. In the event that additional funding subsequently becomes available, DASA may ask whether you would still be prepared to undertake the work outlined in your proposal under the same terms. Your official DASA feedback will indicate if your proposal was fundable or not.

Proposals that are unsuccessful will receive brief feedback after the Decision Conference.

6. Phase 2 Dates

Competition briefing (webinar)	Tuesday 30 June 2020
1-1 telecom sessions	Wednesday 01 July 2020
Competition closes	Thursday 13 August 2020, midday (BST)
Contracting	October 2020
Feedback release	01 November 2020

6.1 Supporting Events

To assist you in making your application two dial-in events are planned:

Tuesday 30 June – A webinar session providing further detail on the problem space and a chance to ask questions in an open forum. If you would like to participate, please register on the Eventbrite page.

Wednesday 01 July – A series of 20-minute one-to-one teleconference sessions, giving you the opportunity to ask specific questions. If you would like to participate, please register on the Eventbrite page.

7. Help

DASA has a network of regionally based Innovation Partners who are available provide guidance to suppliers on submitting to a competition. If you would like guidance, please submit an outline of your idea via the DASA website. This will be sent to an Innovation Partner who will contact you within ten working days to discuss.

While all reasonable efforts will be made to answer queries, DASA reserves the right to impose management controls if volumes of queries restrict fair access of information to all potential suppliers.