Wireless communications, Networking and Information Theory Q&A
Updated 24 March 2021
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1. General questions
1. Can I submit more than one proposal?
You may submit proposals that answer 1 or more of the challenge areas and may also submit multiple proposals for multiple challenges. Multiple proposals need to be independent of one another so that we would be able to fund one or all, if appropriate. You must be able to facilitate and resource all submitted bids simultaneously in the event that they are all successful.
If you submit a proposal with another supplier, you must have a single organisation, who will be the contracted party in the event of a successful submission. Other members of the bidding consortia would act as sub-contractors.
2. What is the duration of the contract?
It is an 8 month contract (see section 5.4 of the competition document), aiming to start at the end of June 2021 and finish in February 2022.
3. How do I determine the best Defence exploitation of my innovation?
It is unnecessary to have a complete exploitation pathway at this point, but it is helpful to include as much information as possible about your plans to date (see section 4 of the competition document). The recent Wireless Communications symposium featured some Front Line Command (FLC) representatives discussing issues and scenarios which may be useful when considering exploitation pathways. You can listen to the symposium here: https://wcs.orcula.co.uk/home (enter your name and email address to access the symposium)
Successful proposals are assigned a Technical Partner (TP) who will work with you throughout the contract and help consider exploitation routes for the technology at the end of the project. They have access to a Military Advisor (MA) to help focus work on military use cases.
4.What TRL are you looking for?
We are interested in innovations that will reach Technology Readiness Levels of between 3 and 6 at the end of the project. As a demonstration at the end of the project we would be happy to see a simulation study, testbed or practical demonstrator of a system. If you are modifying something with a higher TRL, make it clear what the innovation is that we are investing in.
This competition has a broad TRL, we are aiming to seed the pipeline with innovations which can be pulled through both relatively soon and further down the line. Anything which breaks away from the well understood and well expected systems is potentially valuable.
5.Can I use a non-UK national research worker on my project?
Yes, it’s fine to use non-UK national researchers. Both UK and non-UK national researchers will need to complete a Form 388 that DASA will use to perform due diligence and obtain necessary clearances. A Form 388 will be sent to you if you’re successful under a DASA competition. The process can take up to 6 weeks, but we have allowed time for that during the contracting period.
6. Are international proposals welcomed?
Yes, we welcome applications from across the globe, from both industry and academia.
7. Will we be scored based on our collaboration / size of consortia?
No, we welcome proposals from individuals as well as consortia. Proposals will be assessed against the standard DASA assessment criteria (Desirability, Feasibility and Viability).
8. Will there be a follow on project after Phase 1?
We cannot commit to a follow on phase at this time.
9. Can we publish our work during or at the end of the contract?
Yes, this would be encouraged. Only in exceptional cases where national security is compromised would we prevent you from publishing your work.
Before your work is published, a short permissions form will need to be submitted to Dstl for approval.
10. Can we use the Intellectual Property (IP) we generate during the competition in the future?
The contract for this competition includes the IP condition DEFCON 705. DEFCON 705 vests ownership of IP with the contractor, with MOD securing user rights. Thus, the IP is owned by the contractor, and consequently the supplier can use the IP it generates in the future.
2. Scope Questions
11. Are you interested in the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and / or Machine Learning (ML) for communications?
We may be interested in proposals which seek to apply and / or ML to communications to deliver some tangible benefit relevant to one of the communications challenges outlined in the competition document.
12. Is quantum key distribution (QKD) part of this competition?
QKD itself is not part of this call. The competition is specifically around communication rather than key exchange. However, the application of Quantum Theory and Quantum Technology to address one or more of the challenges outlined in the competition document is in the scope of the call, but any proposals seeking to do this should consider wider application areas than just QKD.
13. Are innovations addressing through-water communications relevant to this call?
Yes, through-water applications are in scope. We are interested in proposals that explore non-acoustic and novel acoustic means.
14. Are you interested in dual use technology that can offer both communications and sensing capability?
Dual use technology is of interest, but applicants should note that the focus of this competition is on communications and proposals must explicitly address at least one of the challenges outlined in the competition document. However, we recognise that communications must co-exist with sensing and the potential future value.
15. Is source coding within scope of this competition?
Generically source coding technique is in scope. Ideally, it should be tied in to a specific communication channel or source distribution.
16. Is the use of LiFi in scope of this competition?
LiFi specifically is now a relatively mature technology and so proposals which seek to apply extant LiFi technology to military applications will be likely to fall outside of the TRL range (3-6) of this competition. A number of activities – for example Project LELANTOS (please see links below) are already seeking to apply LiFi to military applications. However, proposals which seek to extend the capabilities of LiFi or which focus on the broader possibilities of Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC) are within scope.