CDE Enduring competition

August 3, 2016

The enduring competition looks for proposals that challenge our thinking and not iterative developments of current technologies. It provides some direction on what MOD’s enduring research challenges are, while still remaining open to all highly innovative ideas that challenge existing conventions and have a high potential benefit for the defence and security end user.

Proposals must be submitted to CDE online.

CDE’s enduring competition has a budget of up to £3 million per year. CDE typically funds proposals for proof-of-concept research in the range of £40,000 to £90,000 for work of 3 to 7 months duration.

The enduring competition won’t accept proposals for more than £90,000 or for projects lasting more than 7 months at phase 1. This is to ensure that CDE phase 1 is focused on proof-of-concept research.

Read more about CDE terms and conditions.

If you have a novel research idea for the enduring competition, you can sign up for a CDEevent to discuss your proposal.

Challenges

The enduring competition particularly seeks innovative, proof-of-concept research proposals in the challenge areas of:

Challenge	Sub-categories
protection	personnel, platforms, facilities, digital systems, materials
situational awareness	sensors, precision navigation and timing, reduced global positioning system (GPS) dependability, persistent surveillance, status of digital systems
power	provision, sources, non fossil, hybrid, management, fuel efficiency
communications	secure, unsecure, mobile, novel forms
data	cyber, information, big data, management and processing, sensemaking, visualisation, delivery, interoperability
lethality	weapons: conventional, novel, directed energy, defence, less than lethal
mobility	platforms, air, land, sea, space, human, means of propulsion
human performance	physical and mental, systems interface, survivability, sustainment, training, medical
lower cost of ownership	platforms, equipment, facilities

When you submit a proposal you need to tell us which of these challenge(s) your proposal meets.

Closing dates

The enduring competition runs on a monthly cycle. A list of the monthly closing dates for 2016/2017 is below. Proposals must be received by CDE by 5pm on the closing date shown.

Closing date	Month proposals will be assessed	Feedback released (if you’re not successful)
24 May 2016	June 2016	12 July 2016
22 June 2016	July 2016	9 August 2016
20 July 2016	August 2016	13 September 2016
23 August 2016	September 2016	11 October 2016
22 September 2016	October 2016	15 November 2016
25 October 2016	November 2016	13 December 2016
24 November 2016	December 2016 / January 2017	14 February 2017
15 December 2016	December 2016 / January 2017	14 February 2017
25 January 2017	February 2017	14 March 2017
22 February 2017	March 2017	11 April 2017

You’ll be notified by email when we’ve made a decision on whether or not to fund your proposal. This will usually happen within a week of the decision date shown on yourbidder dashboard.

If you’re not successful this time, we’ll give you written feedback by the date shown in the table above (for the cycle your proposal was included in) to help you understand why. You’ll be able to access your feedback from your bidder dashboard.

If you’re successful, our commercial team will be in touch to get contracting started shortly after the decision date on your dashboard.

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