Guidance

Generation After Next Communications & Networks: Competition Document

Updated 24 May 2023

1. The Competition

The overall competition will have four phases split across two types. In ‘Discovery’ phases we are looking for innovation where the technology output will reach Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) of 3 or 4 by the end of the 6 month contract. In ‘Development’ phases the technology output will reach further maturation to TRL 6 by the end of the 12 month contract.

This initial stage of the competition will open the first of the ‘Discovery’ phases and will follow the anticipated timetable below. For this phase, the total funding available is £1M (ex VAT), and we expect to fund 8-10 proposals.

Later ‘Development’ phases will allow both for further maturation of Discovery phase activities e.g. to TRL 6, as well as the introduction of new activities. Further details will be announced in due course.

1.1 Submission deadline

The initial Discovery phase will close on 31 May 2023 at 12 midday (BST).

This first competition is part of a phased campaign being run in support of the Communications and Networks Programme.

The various phases of the competition will be open for submissions between these dates.

Phase	Launch Date	Closing date	Length of Contract	Demo Event
Discovery A	4 April 2023	31 May 2023	6 months	March/April 2024
Development A	April 2024	June 2024	12 months	October 2025
Discovery B	July 2024	September 2024	6 months	September 2025
Development B	September 2025	October 2025	12 months	March 2027

Dates are subject to change

1.2 Where do I submit my proposal?

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.
You must not submit any information classified above OFFICIAL.

1.3 Total funding available

Total funding for all phases of the competition is £6 million :

• First Discovery phase £1 million
• First Development phase £2 million
• Second Discovery phase £1 million
• Final Development phase £2 million

This initial stage of the competition will open the first of the ‘Discovery’ phases and will follow the anticipated timetable above. For this phase, the total funding available is £1M (ex VAT), and we expect to fund 8-10 proposals.

Any further phases will be open to applications from all innovators and it is not compulsory to have been involved in previous phases to apply.

1.4 Supporting events

Dial-in session

18 April 2023 – A dial-in 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.

2. Competition Scope

2.1 Background

The UK’s future defence capability is centred on the concept of Information Advantage (IA), which is defined as the ability to out-think and out-decide adversaries to achieve dominance in the battlespace and during operations. Information Advantage depends fundamentally on the availability of appropriate information at the time and place of need, in ways that are robust to the challenges of the deployed military environment. These challenges include:

• Mobility - nearly all network entities in the deployed environment, ranging from single vehicles to large formations, are highly mobile and this mobility is rarely predictable in advance. More generally, all aspects of the operational context are subject to rapid change, and this needs to be handled without dependence on specialised technical skills and without reachback communications capability.

• Spectrum access – in the case of RF communications, the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is a shared resource. Operating alongside allies, civil populations and indeed adversaries brings significant problems for spectrum planning and access.

• Demand for information – our forces increasingly depend on information exchange, which almost always exceeds the available communications capacity. They need to have appropriate situational awareness so users and applications can adapt their behaviour to what is instantaneously available.

• Integration – our forces are frequently operating with coalition partners or in conjunction with host nation organisations, and this drives a need for integration and information sharing with highly heterogeneous systems.

• Adversary threat - just as our communications are the essential enabler of Information Advantage, they could also allow an adversary to detect and attack us by electromagnetic, cyber or physical means. Particular communications technologies may be partially or completely denied.

This DASA competition aims to provide novel and disruptive ideas into the Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA) funded Communications and Networks (C&N) research programme at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). Any future exploitation of technologies may be via the different Front Line Commands (Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and UK Strategic Command), procurement organisations and partners across government, as well as via international research collaboration where appropriate, in order to provide enhanced capability to the defence user.
Scope

We are seeking proposals for novel capability in the fields of Communications, Networking and Information Services. Proposals can be based on novel ideas within existing communications standards and defence networks, or for completely new approaches to transmitting information.

Proposals can be generic in application, or could target one of the domains of defence (including Air, Land and Maritime); however, proposals should be focused on military deployed scenarios, rather than fixed communications infrastructure, such as data centres. In addition, proposals solely restricted to the space domain are not in the scope of this competition.

We welcome approaches looking to exploit civilian communications technology components that could be modified to support defence requirements.

2.2 Competition Challenges – Discovery Phase

For this initial Discovery phase, we are seeking proposals that offer low-TRL concepts and approaches against the broad problem area described above. The following specific challenges are offered to guide proposals; however we recognise that many concepts may have some relevance against more than one of these challenges.

This competition has 9 Challenges.

Challenge 1: Novel wireless bearers and supporting technologies, especially supporting step changes in performance, flexibility or Size, Weight and Power (SWaP)

Bearers are the physical systems that transmit and receive signals to enable information sharing. We are looking for novel wireless bearers and novel wireless bearer components to enable transmission of signals via the Electromagnetic Environment (EME) or other means, for example via radio, light or acoustic waves. We are also interested in proposals which offer novel means to improve bearer system components such as transceivers, filters, amplifiers, antennas, materials and so on. Benefits here may include a step change reductio n in SWaP, increases in performance, or increases in flexibility enabling a system to address a broader range of use cases.

Challenge 2: Cross stack integration and optimisation, from physical layer to application layer

In resource constrained networks performance gains can be realised by optimising communication protocols and behaviours across the layers of the protocol stack. We are interested in approaches that enable these gains, to optimise the performance of applications over networked bearers. We are interested in how these integrations can be managed during use and how they can be adapted to cope with new, unforeseen contingencies.

Challenge 3: Impact of novel security concepts (e.g. Data Centric Security (DCS) or Zero Trust Approach (ZTA), multiparty computation or homomorphic encryption) on communications or network architectures

Although the development of new security concepts is out of scope we are interested in how they may interact with other aspects of the network and how they can be managed or exploited to achieve new types of capability.

Challenge 4: Information discovery and dissemination services that serve multiple applications

In future deployed forces will seek to exploit a rich set of applications drawing on a wide set of dispersed information assets that are distributed across a complex network. We are seeking ideas to enable applications to discover the most relevant accessible sources of information and to be able to move that information efficiently and effectively on a resource constrained and congested network.

Challenge 5 : Information interoperability tools that can integrate data from diverse sources for consumption by multiple applications

In military networks information is generated and stored in a wide range of formats using a wide range of standards. We are interested in ideas to help fuse together information from disparate sources to enable it to be read and operated on by many applications.

Challenge 6: Network management including human in the loop aspects, including human/machine teaming, automation of network management functions

Managing complex networks in the deployed military environment is complicated by frequently degraded and intermittent connectivity, rapidly changing topologies, threats and changes in the transmission environment and multiple security regimes. These technical challenges are amplified by the administrative and governance complexities that arise from the integration of network assets across forces and coalitions. We are seeking novel approaches to network and service management that can manage and automate control of this complexity and dynamism. It is important that the management system itself does not overload the network or the user so consideration should be given to cognitive, processing and particularly communication overheads.

Challenge 7 : Network and communications system performance characterisation and optimisation in real time against high level metrics for command intent

Deployed military networks ultimately exist to support the successful prosecution of military operations according the commander’s goal. We are seeking ideas or techniques that will allow the performance of the network to be assessed against the military intents of the commander and will then enable corresponding optimisation of network performance.

Challenge 8: System concepts for integration of multiple communications capabilities

In the future battle spaces it is likely that multiple communications options will be available to users and the decision as to which offers the best risk / benefit balance could be complex. We are seeking ideas to integrate communications capabilities which are able to manage the complexity and able to flexibly adapt to environmental or adversary challenge.

Challenge 9: System concepts for improved Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) communications, complementing satellite communications

We are seeking ideas for long range communication – beyond visual range – that are not dependent on satellites. We are interested in ideas that are able to achieve BLOS ranges in a single hop and in approaches that include some intermediate relay – although the resilience of any intermediate component must be considered.

If you have an innovation in this area that will take 6 months or less to complete, please submit to this themed competition. If your proposed work will take between 6 to 24 months you should instead submit to IFA036 - Beyond Line of Sight Communications.

We want novel ideas to benefit end-users working in UK Defence and Security. Your proposal should include evidence of:

• ideas for future BLOS concepts.
• future architectures for resilient data services.
• future architectures for resilient networks.
• future novel and adaptive bearers and waveforms.
• enhanced modelling and characterisation of future transmission environments.
• future deployable communications that can be integrated across a multi-domain collation within a contested and congested environment.
• theoretical development, method of advancement or proof of concept research which can demonstrate potential for translation to practical demonstration in later phases
• innovation or a creative approach
• clear demonstration of how the proposed work applies to any defence and security context

2.3 We are not interested in…

We are not interested in proposals that:

• constitute research into the specific areas of:
  • quantum key distribution
  • satellite communications
• only relate to fixed network infrastructure
• are primarily investigations of cyber defensive (including novel IA techniques such as DCS or ZTA or offensive capabilities
• are specific applications with no broader applicability
• constitute consultancy, paper-based studies or literature reviews which just summarise the existing literature without any view of future innovation;
• are an identical resubmission of a previous proposal to DASA or MOD without modification;
• offer demonstrations of off-the-shelf products requiring no experimental development (unless applied in a novel way to the challenge);
• offer no real long-term prospect of integration into defence and security capabilities;
• offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions;

3. Accelerating and exploiting your innovation

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 depend on the nature and starting point of the innovation.

3.1 A clear route for exploitation

Outcomes of both the Discovery and Development phases will be linked with the core Communications and Networks Programme which will offer a possible exploitation path and picked up through the Science & Technology Frameworks.

The open days and demonstrations day of both the Discovery and Development phases will be coordinated to showcase to not only Dstl, but also the wider MOD including STRATCOM, Front Line Commands, Defence Digital, and Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S). These open days will also be coordinated with Dstl industry and academic partners through exposure to those partners already established within the Frameworks.

There will be further opportunity through linkages with Academia and the UK Research Institute to discuss core academic exploitation of conceptual and low TRL responses.

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. Early identification and appropriate engagement with potential end users during the competition and subsequent phases are essential in order to develop and implement an exploitation plan.

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 as easy as possible for potential 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 can contact an Innovation Partner via the DASA website.

A higher technology maturity will be expected in any subsequent Development phases, which may be proposed and articulated, but will not be funded under this Discovery phase. You may wish to include some of the following information, where known, 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
• awareness of, and alignment to, any existing end user procurement programmes
• 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
• expected additional work required beyond the end of the contract to develop an operationally deployable product (for example, “scaling up” for manufacture, cyber security, integration with existing technologies, environmental operating conditions)
• additional future applications and wider markets for exploitation
• wider collaborations and networks you have already developed or any additional relationships you see as a requirement to support exploitation
• how your product could be tested in a representative environment in later phases
• 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.

To increase the impact and likelihood of exploitation, the output of these proposals may be shared across UK government as appropriate including partners in National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

4. How to apply

4.1 Submission deadline

The initial Discovery phase will close midday on 31 May 2023 at 12 midday (BST). Subsequent phases will open in 2024 and beyond.

4.2 Where do I submit my proposal?

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.

You must not submit any information classified above OFFICIAL.

You must not submit any information classified above Official. If you have any questions, please contact accelerator@dstl.gov.uk in advance.

4.3 Total funding available

This initial stage of the competition will open the first of the ‘Discovery’ phases. For this phase, the total funding available is £1M (ex VAT), and we expect to fund 8-10 proposals.

Any further phases will be open to applications from all innovators and it is not compulsory to have been involved in previous phases to apply.

4.4 For further guidance

Click here for more information on our competition process and how your proposal is assessed.

Queries should be sent to the DASA Help Centre – accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.

4.5 What your proposal must include

• The proposal should focus on the requirements of the phase you are submitting in to, and must also include a brief (uncosted) outline of the next stages of work required for further exploitation.
• 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 £1M (ex VAT). Proposals will be rejected if the financial cost exceeds this capped level
• You must include 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.
• 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 a final report
• You should also plan for attendance at a kick-off meeting at the start of the first Discovery phase, a mid-project event and an end of project event at the end of this phase, as well as regular reviews with the appointed Technical Partner and Project Manager; all meetings will be in the UK. Meetings may also take place virtually.
• Your proposal must demonstrate how you will complete all activities/services and provide all deliverables within the competition timescales (6 months). Proposals with any deliverables (including final report) outside the competition timeline will be rejected as non-compliant.

4.6 What your resourcing plan should include

Your resourcing plan must identify, where possible, the nationalities of proposed employees that you intend to work on this phase.

If your proposal is recommended for funding

In the event of a proposal being recommended for funding, the DASA reserves the right to undertake due diligence checks including the clearance of proposed employees. 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.

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 refer to the MODREC Guidance for Suppliers or contact your Innovation Partner for further guidance.
Requirements for access to Government Furnished Assets (GFA), for example, information, equipment, materials and facilities, may be included in your proposal. DASA cannot guarantee that GFA will be available. If you apply for GFA, you should include an alternative plan in case it is not available.
Failure to provide any of the above listed will automatically render your proposal non-compliant.

4.7 Export control for overseas partners

All relevant export control regulations will apply if a company ultimately wants to sell a developed solution to a foreign entity. All innovators 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 and other countries. 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. Cyber risk assessment

5.1 Supplier Assurance Questionnaire (SAQ)

On receipt of a ‘Fund’ decision, successful suppliers must prove cyber resilience data before the contract is awarded. The start of this process is the submission of a Supplier Assurance Questionnaire (SAQ). The SAQ allows suppliers to demonstrate compliance with the specified risk level and the corresponding profile in Def Stan 05-138, and the level of control required will depend on this risk level.

To expedite the contracting time of successful suppliers we ask all suppliers to complete the SAQ before they submit their proposal. The SAQ can be completed here using the DASA Risk Assessment RAR-888915129 and answer questions for risk level “Low”.

5.2 Defence Cyber Protection Partnership

The Defence Cyber Protection Partnership (DCPP) will review your SAQ submission and respond with a reference number within 2 working days. The resulting email response from DCPP should be attached (JPG or PNG format) and included within the DASA submission service portal when the proposal is submitted. You will also be asked to enter your SAQ reference number. Please allow enough time to receive the SAQ reference number prior to competition close at midday on 31 May 2023.

If the proposal is being funded, the SAQ will be evaluated against the CRA for the competition, and it will be put it into one of the following categories: 1. compliant – no further action 2. not compliant – if successful in competition and being funded, the innovator will be required to complete a Cyber Implementation Plan (CIP) before the contract is placed, which will need to be reviewed and agreed with the relevant project manager

Innovators can enter a proposal without all controls in place, but are expected to have all the cyber protection measures necessary to fulfil the requirements of the contract in place at the time of contract award, or have an agreed Cyber Implementation Plan (CIP).

The CIP provides evidence as to how and when potential innovators will achieve compliance. Provided the measures proposed in the Cyber Implementation Plan do not pose an unacceptable risk to the MOD, a submission with a Cyber Implementation Plan will be considered alongside those who can achieve the controls.

A final check will be made to ensure cyber resilience before the contract is placed. Commercial staff cannot progress without it. This process does not replace any contract specific security requirements.

Further guidance for completing this process can be requested by emailing the DASA Help Centre: accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.

Additional information about cyber security can be found at: DCPP: Cyber Security Model industry buyer and supplier guide.

Public facing information

When submitting your proposal, you will be required to include a title and a short abstract. The title and abstract you provide will be used by DASA, and other government departments, to describe your project and its intended outcomes and benefits. They may be included at DASA events in relation to this competition and in documentation such as brochures. The proposal title will 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. As this information can be shared, it should not contain information that may compromise Intellectual property.

6. 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 that demonstrate compliance against the competition scope and DASA mandatory criteria will be taken forward to full assessment.

6.1 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	Pass / Fail
The proposal identifies the need (or not) for MODREC approval if required	Pass / Fail
The proposal identifies any GFA required	Pass / Fail
The proposal demonstrates how all research and development activities / services (including delivery of the final report) will be completed within 6 months from award of contract (or less) for this Discovery phase	Pass / Fail
The bidder has obtained the authority to provide unqualified acceptance of the terms and conditions of the Contract	Pass / Fail

Proposals that pass Stage 1 will then 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 the front-line military commands. You will not have the opportunity to view or comment on assessors’ recommendations.

DASA reserves the right to disclose on a confidential basis any information it receives from innovators during the procurement process (including information identified by the innovator as Commercially Sensitive Information in accordance with the provisions of this competition) to any third party engaged by DASA for the specific purpose of evaluating or assisting DASA in the evaluation of the innovator’s proposal. In providing such information the innovator consents 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 internally 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.

Innovators are not permitted to attend the Decision Conference.

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

6.2 Things you should know about DASA contracts: DASA terms and conditions

Please read the DASA terms and conditions which contain important information for innovators. For this competition we will be using the Innovation Standard Contract (ISC), links to the contract: Terms and Conditions and Schedules. We will require unqualified acceptance of the terms and conditions; if applicable, please ensure your commercial department has provided their acceptance.

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 including, when appropriate, introductions to end-users and business support to help develop their business.
We will use deliverables from DASA contracts in accordance with our rights detailed in the contract terms and conditions.

For this phase of the competition, £1M is currently available to fund proposals. There may be occasions when additional funding may become available to allow us to revisit proposals deemed suitable for funding. Therefore, DASA reserves the right to keep such proposals in reserve. In the event that additional funding becomes available, DASA may ask whether you would still be prepared to undertake the work outlined in your proposal under the same terms.

6.3 Discovery Phase key dates

Dial-in	18 April 2023
Competition closes	31 May 2023 at 12 midday (BST)
Feedback release	31 July 2023
Contracting	Aim to start September 2023 and end 6 months later in March 2024

6.4 Help: Contact the DASA Help Centre

Competition queries including on process, application, commercial, technical and intellectual property aspects should be sent to the DASA Help Centre at accelerator@dstl.gov.uk, quoting the competition title. If you wish receive future updates on this competition, please email the DASA Help Centre.

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 innovators.