Defence Online

Type of document: Contract Notice
Country: United Kingdom

MOD Prior Information Notice

GB-Salisbury: DECANT Project

1. Contract Title
Contract Title: GB-Salisbury: DECANT Project

2. Contracting Authority:
Ministry of Defence, DSTL, Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL)
Dstl Porton Down, Bldg 5, Room G02, i-SAT F,, Salisbury, SP4 0JQ, United Kingdom
Tel. 01980 954892, Email: DstlDECANT@dstl.gov.uk

3. Contract:
Type of Contract: SERVICES
Estimated value of requirement: Category C: 20M – 100M GBP
Short description of the contract: Dstl’s Autonomy Programme provides science and technology (S&T) research and analysis to identify and develop underpinning research and technologies to support the development and fielding of unmanned systems across defence and security which may be matured through the Autonomy and other research and development (R&D) programmes.

Dstl currently has no direct route to market in place to support the Autonomy Programme. There is a requirement to respond in a timely manner to underpinning autonomous research needs in order to maximise commercial and technical efficiency,

The MOD, via Dstl Platform Systems Division has a requirement, known as the DECANT (Defence Capability for Autonomous and Novel Technologies) Project to set up a new route to market to deliver the Autonomy programme requirements. This route to market is anticipated to be in place during 2019. The DECANT Project will provide access to a wide supply base and develop the capability and capacity of this supply base over time. The scope of the DECANT Project will provide cross-cutting research that underpins unmanned systems in all environments, such as air, land and maritime. It will be ideally situated to act as a conduit for the flow of S&T to, and from, the civil sector and will enhance our ability to engage more effectively with other government departments and the wider civil sector.

In order to provide future autonomy capability options, the aims of the DECANT Project will be to identify and develop underpinning technologies to enable the next generation of systems.

The scope will focus on the following capability areas:

• Machine perception, reasoning, intelligence;
• Human / autonomous systems interaction and collaboration;
• Scalable teaming of autonomous systems & autonomous systems technology;
• Test evaluation, validation and verification (V&V); and enabling technologies.

The aims will be met by:

• A flexible and responsive vehicle to undertake joint research and technology between MOD, Industry and Academia
• Support to the competitiveness of UK Industry
• A rapid contracting mechanism across the supply chain across lower Technology Readiness Levels (TRL)

Work undertaken within the DECANT Project will also support existing national and international arrangements and will be coordinated with other research. It has been determined that the majority of this work should be undertaken outside of Government with the broad, vibrant external supply chain for research existing in Industry and Academia.

To register your interest please send an email to the DECANT team at DstlDECANT@dstl.gov.uk
CPV codes:
73000000 – Research and development services and related consultancy services.

Additional Information: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.Suppliers interested in working with the Ministry of Defence should register on the MOD Supplier Information Database (SID) Register, available at www.contracts.mod.uk. The MOD SID is a database of active and potential suppliers available to all MOD and UK Defence procurement personnel, and is the main supplier database of MOD Procurement organisations. Please note: the registration and publication of a company profile on the MOD SID does not mean or imply that the supplier has in any way been vetted or approved by the MOD. Suppliers wishing to compete for advertised MOD contracts must respond to any specific call for competition by submitting a separate expression of interest in accordance with the instructions of the purchasing organisation.

The Authority reserves the right to amend any condition related to security of information to reflect any changes in national law or government policy. If any contract documents are accompanied by instructions on safeguarding classified information (e.g. a Security Aspects Letter), the Authority reserves the right to amend the terms of these instructions to reflect any changes in national law or government policy, whether in respect of the applicable protective marking scheme, specific protective markings given, the aspects to which any protective marking applies, or otherwise.

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