Applications for funding: Drones for defence
The Ministry of Defence is to invest up to £3M in the funding of organisations for research into drone technology for defence. The ‘Many drones make light work’ competition is designed to find technology solutions that show and evaluate the benefits of using drones for defence, with this funding to determine the benefit of using swarms of unmanned air systems for defence.
The challenge is to operate swarms of more than 20 unmanned air systems (UAS), also known as drones, with just a single operator coordinating these drones to fly closely coupled. Add to this the ability to be usable for military purposes in a contested environment and usability across the electro-magnetic spectrum. This means ranging from visible frequencies through to low frequency radio waves.
The competition challenges are:
- open, modular UAS
- mission management of UAS swarms
- development of technology enablers for UAS swarms
As well as developing technology components, proposals should show integrated system solutions comprising technology components from more than one supplier.
This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition run in partnership with Innovate UK. The competition has 2 phases:
Phase 1
Up to £1 million is available to fund several projects, allocating between £40,000 and £80,000 each. Projects should last up to six months.
Phase 2
Up to £2 million is available with this phase is open only to projects funded through phase 1 of the competition.
Competition information
- This competition is open now
- The application deadline is Thursday 3 November 2016
- There will be a briefing for potential applicants at the CDE Innovation Network event on Thursday 22 September 2016
drones funding Innovation MOD Research SBRI technology UAS UK
Post written by: Vicky Maggiani
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