DASA Standard Terms and Conditions
Guidance on Defence and Security Accelerator terms and conditions for funding, contracts and intellectual property rights.
The guidance below will help you to understand who can apply for funding, the sort of projects the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) funds, and the terms and conditions of DASA contracts.
Who can apply
DASA submissions are welcome from the private sector, academia and Public Sector Research Establishments (PSRE’s). DASA will examine the legal status of organisations prior to placement of any contract or agreement. In most cases there are no nationality restrictions, however DASA individual competition documents will detail any necessary restrictions.
Excluding ineligible suppliers
We expect our suppliers to maintain the highest standards of integrity and professionalism in their business dealings and adhere to the laws of the countries where they operate.
We reserve the right to exclude a supplier who’s been convicted of any of the offences or misconduct listed in the ‘statement relating to good standing’ that will be sent to you if you’re successful under a DASA competition.
What DASA funds
We fund innovative and exploitable ideas that could lead to an advantage for UK armed forces and national security, and support UK prosperity.
We use technology readiness levels (TRL) to give an indication of an innovation. See the table below for guidance.
| TRL | Ministry of Defence (MOD) definition |
| 1 | Basic principles observed and reported |
| 2 | Technology concept and/or application formulated |
| 3 | Analytical and experimental critical function and/or characteristic proof of concept |
| 4 | Technology basic validation in a laboratory environment |
| 5 | Technology basic validation in a relevant environment |
| 6 | Technology model or prototype demonstration in a relevant environment |
| 7 | Technology prototype demonstration in an operational environment |
| 8 | Actual technology completed and qualified through test and demonstration |
| 9 | Actual technology qualified through successful mission operations |
If you have a product and are looking to become a defence supplier, you may wish to speak to the MOD Defence Suppliers’ Service.
What DASA does not fund
DASA generally does not fund the following unless explicitly stated in the competition document.
- projects or manpower that is currently receiving funding or has already been funded from elsewhere in government
- solutions at TRL 9, unless explicitly stated in the competition document
- concepts which are not novel or innovative
- consultancy
- ideas from within Government (excluding Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs).
- commercialisation of ideas
If you are concerned your project falls in to one of these categories and are unsure if you should submit a full proposal for a competition please submit a Contact DASA Form which will be checked by a member of our team.
Our Competitions
You can apply for funding via a themed competition or the Open Call for Innovation. All open opportunities are listed on the ‘Apply for Funding’ page.
In addition to the guidance on this page you must refer to the relevant competition document for the competition specific terms and conditions, including the specific contract.
Your Proposal
DASA recognises the value of your intellectual property (IP). We use a number of safeguards to protect the information you provide to us in your proposals, whilst allowing proper scrutiny of your submissions by our expert assessors, facilitating effective collaboration, and achieving appropriate transparency of how public money is being spent.
Unless stated otherwise below or in the relevant competition document, all information you provide to us as part of your proposal, that is not already available to us from other sources, will be handled in confidence. This information will only be used for the purposes for which it is provided to us. It won’t be used for other purposes, without us having obtained the necessary rights and permissions to do so.
DASA reserves the right to disclose on a confidential basis any information it receives from you during the procurement process, which includes the full proposal, to any third party engaged by DASA for the specific purpose of evaluating or assisting DASA in the evaluation of your proposal. In providing such information you consent to such disclosure. Appropriate confidentiality agreements will be put in place.
Where a proposal meets the fundable requirements for a competition, but is not funded, DASA will continue to seek funding from partners across government and shall consider your proposal fundable for 12 months from the date of the decision release. We will share the abstract, Proposal Value Proposition Statement (PVPS) and title of your proposal with any other UK government departments that may express an interest in funding the proposal through DASA, in accordance with the competition document. If a budget holder within the MOD wishes to read the full proposal to decide if they will fund it, we will share it with them under these circumstances. If it is within 60 days of the original NOT FUNDED decision release date, we will share the full proposal with them without seeking your permission. If it is over 60 days since the original NOT FUNDED decision we will seek your permission before sharing the full proposal with them.
For other potential funders, we will seek your permission before sharing the full proposal regardless of the number of days since the original NOT FUNDED decision release.
As part of your proposal you will be required to provide a proposal title, PVPS and a short abstract that you permit us to publish and use freely.
We will keep the title; PVPS; abstract; total price; technology area; organisation; and any related prior submission reference number, detailed in your proposal.
We will make sure all proposals which are downloaded by us from our online submission service are appropriately classified and get a digital watermark. The watermark names the person who will assess the proposal, along with the date and time it was downloaded.
Transparency
For proposals that we fund, in accordance with the Government’s Transparency Agenda, we may publish information in respect of Contract documents, comprising:
- all non-redacted elements of the final terms and conditions
- all non-redacted elements of the contract schedules. This must include the overall price, but not a breakdown of the pricing structure if that detailed information can be redacted under the Freedom of Information Act
- all non-redacted elements of your proposal where these are incorporated into the final contract schedules or the terms and conditions.
Our Standard Contracts
For your proposal to be accepted for assessment, you must tick a box to confirm your organisation’s unqualified acceptance of DASA terms and conditions for the respective competition. The following guidance will help you to understand what these terms and conditions mean.
DASA uses the Innovation Standard Contract (ISC)
The ISC is a short set of terms and conditions that have been created specifically for the provision of innovative requirements. This short and simple contracting method aims to encourage engagement with DASA, whilst having the complexities of some other contracting methods removed.
Please note: Themed Competitions have specific terms and conditions which you can find alongside the relevant competition document. A list of current Themed Competitions can be viewed here
We reserve the right to add additional contractual conditions if individual circumstances dictate. Any additions will be mutually agreed with you before a contract is awarded.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property in the ISC is in most cases managed according to the MOD standard intellectual property contract condition for fully funded research contracts – DEFCON 705. Under the terms of DEFCON 705 any intellectual property generated under the contract belongs to the contractor. In return, the funding Authority obtains a set of rights to use the delivered technical information and associated intellectual property for specified purposes.
The MOD commercial toolkit is accessible on the MOD internet site and contains details on MOD contract conditions. The site is available via registered access. You’ll need to register and then activate your account before you can browse the toolkit. Be aware that it could take a period of time for the account to be activated.
Deliverables and Deliverable Markings
In your proposal to us, you must describe the ‘deliverables’ from your project; in other words, what will be produced and delivered as a result of the project.
In competitions using the ISC and DEFCON 705 you must also state in your proposal if the deliverables are what we call ‘Full Rights’ or ‘Limited Rights’ versions. Full Rights Versions only contain Foreground Information – information generated under the work that we contract with you. Limited Rights Versions contain both Foreground Information and Background Information, the latter being information not generated under the work we contract with you e.g. information generated under previous private venture funding. You must provide us with a Full Rights Version of all deliverables, ensuring that it is coherent on its own. You may also provide to us a Limited Rights Version where we agree it is useful to include background information relevant to the evaluation/understanding of the deliverables. Limited Rights Versions of deliverables won’t be released by us outside of Government.
Where you specify in your proposal ‘Limited Rights’ versions of deliverables, you must also specify whether the relevant Background Information has been previously generated under contract using MOD funding. Where this is the case you should also state clearly in your proposal the details of the prior contract and the associated intellectual property contract conditions. Where any deliverable is subject to third party intellectual property rights (IPR) you must also describe this in your proposal.
As detailed in the ISC, you must mark your deliverables in accordance with the document marking scheme detailed therein.
Price
All prices quoted for DASA proposals are firm (non-variable) and must be exclusive of VAT. Prices quoted are not subject to the effects of escalation or exchange-rate variation.
As well as the technical aspects, value for money will also be taken into consideration during the assessment of your proposal. To help with this, prices in your proposal must be supported by a full cost breakdown.
Note that all bought-in items will become our property and will be registered as government-furnished assets (GFA).
Payment
We will make payment in accordance with the terms of the relevant contract.
You can propose an interim payment plan, which must be supported by a detailed expenditure profile showing projected monthly expenditure figures.
The interim payment plan must provide clearly defined work stages, deliverables with associated payments and timescales.
If you’re requesting interim payments you should comply with the following:
- We won’t pre-fund any expenditure, so interim payment claims mustn’t include costs not yet incurred.
- Each interim payment must be related to verifiable achievement.
- No more than 6 interim payments are to be proposed.
- The last payment, entitled ‘satisfactory completion of all work under the contract’, shall be at least 20% of the total quoted firm price.
Government-furnished assets
Government Furnished Assets (GFA) could be equipment, information or resources that are government-owned and loaned (on a free-of-charge basis) to a contractor to assist in the completion of the contract. GFA is not provided lightly and only where there are substantial and pressing reasons (e.g. where there would be significant financial or quality benefits to the work as a result of using GFA). Therefore, if there is a demonstrable need that can only be met via GFA, this should be detailed in your proposal.
Ethical approval
It’s a condition of the contract that, as certain work must be justified ethically as well as scientifically, we reserve the right to terminate the work with immediate effect if you don’t gain the relevant approval.
You should submit your priced proposal using a staged approach, detailing deliverables and prices for work that can be done before and after getting ethical approval.
Read more about MOD ethical approval and other regulations which may affect your work.
Research workers
When submitting your proposal, you must provide a resourcing plan that identifies, where possible, the nationalities of those proposed research workers that you intend working on this phase. Before we can award a contract, we need each proposed research worker to complete a Form 388 that we will use to perform due diligence and obtain necessary clearances. 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. A Form 388 will be sent to you if you’re successful under a DASA competition.
Each Form 388 must be signed and returned with a brief curriculum vitae (CV) of each person by the nominated individual completing the work. The relevant people will be named in the subsequent contract. Throughout the life of any contract you must notify us in writing if you intend to change or add additional research workers. You must supply a completed Form 388 and CV for any new research workers.
Communications
You must appoint a person who’s responsible for all communications with us.
After a contract has been awarded, all queries should be directed to the named points of contact detailed in the contract documentation.
English is the official language for all communication between bidders, DASA and in all parts of DASA proposals.
You must provide details to us of any related public announcement for review prior to release.
We’ll use the email address that you used to create your account and the telephone number in your profile to contact you.
Defence and Security Accelerator
GO1 Building 5 Porton Down Salisbury Wiltshire SP4 0JQ
Tell us your idea: contact us
Other enquiries: accelerator@dstl.gov.uk
Urgent DASA enquiries - Telephone +44 (0)1980 950000 option 3 (open 09:00am – 12:00pm Monday-Friday)
Please email for the quickest response.
Please note the dasacommercial@dstl.gov.uk address is no longer in use
Updates to this page
Last updated 6 September 2024 + show all updates
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Removed link to outdated DEFCON 705 PDF
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Slight revision to the wording in the payment section.
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Removed sole traders as they are a sub-set of the private sector, so already covered.
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Updated text in who can apply from individuals to sole traders - DASA can only contract with a legal entity
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Updated the who can apply paragraph to include agreement as well as contract
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Updated the transparency wording
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Removed a sentence around DASAs transparency data
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Updated the Your Proposal section to include the sharing of the Proposal Value Proposition Statement as well as the title and abstract.
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Your proposal - added clarity around the sharing of proposals after the competition has ended, where a proposal meets the fundable requirements for a competition, but is not funded,
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In the section 'What DASA does not fund' the 'Innovation Outline' has been replaced with the 'Contact DASA Form'
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Added link to Current Themed Competitions in the Our Standard Contracts section.
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Added to "Our Standard Contracts" section: Themed Competitions have specific terms and conditions which you can find alongside the relevant competition document.
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Uploaded new terms and conditions document: DASA Open Call Terms and Conditions July 2022 (Also contains Schedules)
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- Updated Innovation Standard Contract (ISC) document and schedule, the ISC will be used for Themed and Open Call competitions.
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Further guidance included in "What DASA does not fund" section.
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- Updated Terms and conditions. - Updated ISC Schedule
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Innovation Standard Contract Limit of Liability change - new version attached
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Updates to your proposal section.
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Updated DASA Terms and Conditions - including new contract and intellectual property guidance.
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Edited/new version of DASA Short form contract uploaded to documents
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Update to text from 'All competitions will use the new' to 'Many competitions, especially Phase 1 earlier TRL competitions, will use the new'
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Please note we have updated our short form contract template. Best wishes The Defence and Security Accelerator
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Submission service open.
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Submission Service reopen dates published.
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First published.