Minister for Defence Procurement Harriett Baldwin announced the £3 million Defence and Security Accelerator competition at the inaugural Maritime Enterprise Innovation Scotland Conference, in the University’s Technology & Innovation Centre.
Ms Baldwin said, “The Defence Innovation Initiative and £800 million Defence Innovation Fund aim to encourage imagination, ingenuity and entrepreneurship, in pursuit of maintaining a military advantage in the future.
“This Innovation Challenge calls for innovators to develop new technologies to improve the UK’s ability to analyse and exploit data in order to inform decision-making.
“With a rising Defence budget, and a £178 billion equipment plan, our commitment to collaboration will deliver a safer and more prosperous Britain.”
The University’s Professor Graham Wren added, “The drive to widen the engagement with SMEs is particularly welcome and has been an important theme of Strathclyde’s own industrial engagement theme.
“As a leading international technological institution, we are pleased to be helping the Royal Navy and colleagues in SE access leading research and innovation from a wider Scottish and UK academic and industrial base.”
This £3m Accelerator competition, backed by the Ministry of Defence’s £800 million innovation fund, is looking for new technologies, processes and ways of working to improve the analysis and exploitation of data in order to inform decision-making. Projects are expected to last up to six months, and initial results need to be delivered to Defence by November 2017.
The Accelerator will enable potential suppliers to collaborate, experiment with, and fast track innovative ideas against a series of Defence challenges which are designed to focus innovative endeavour across UK defence and security.
Innovation is a vital element in developing the UK’s economic strength, productivity and competitiveness. The conference will allow existing and potential members of the defence supply chain, including SMEs, to understand how to collaborate with defence, and develop new routes to market for their technologies.
A legacy of the conference will see the Royal Navy, Strathclyde and industry guaranteeing funding for at least six defence innovation PhDs, with the final number and subjects being confirmed in January ahead of the new academic year in autumn 2017.
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