The Next Generation Technologies Fund (NGTF) seeks proposals from academia and industry to develop next-generation prototypes and key subsystems of phased array antennas capable of simultaneously supporting multiple RF functions being transmitted and received over a wide frequency band.

Submissions are now closed.

The program has been designed in three phases intended to run over at least a five-year period. The first phase of the program is supported by five Australian universities under a multi-party collaborative agreement. This phase develops the core concepts, addressing key S&T challenges and retiring risk to set up foundational technology pathways in the next phase. This phase will end in February 2022.

The Multi-Function Aperture Program is now seeking responses from interested industry and academic organisations to become part of the MFA team, and assist the development of Australian-based and sovereign capabilities in one (or more) of the following ways:

1. Establishment of new industrial capabilities relevant to MFA,
2. Leveraging existing in-house industry capabilities, or,
3. Focused research in collaboration with industry partners.

This second phase of the program intends to extend the research effort underpinned by and re-focused towards industrial research capabilities and development. This will require significant industry engagement and close collaboration with university partners to transform concepts from the first phase into technologies that can be readily scaled and integrated. This outcome will set up the third phase to develop a fully capable multi-function aperture evaluation-demonstrator to assess how the new technology can be exploited in future force in-being.

What are the research areas?

S&T proposals in the MFA developed during Phase 1 and which are expected to be taken forward in Phase 2 are:

• Antenna array elements and surface: Two array designs operating over a decade of bandwidth, providing wide scan angle range, and dual polarisation have been developed.
• Impedance matching: Novel impedance matching techniques are being designed to meet the multi-function wideband requirements of the antenna surfaces.
• Beam forming and excitation: The MFA antenna surface designs are accompanied by novel forms of array excitation for beam forming, steering and control.
• RF amplifier design: GaN power amplifier and low noise amplifier designs for the MFA front-end RF transceiver to support multi-carrier functionality across a decadal bandwidth.
• Circulator and switch design: Development of switch and circulator designs capable of operating with high isolation across the MFA bandwidth.
• Self-Interference Cancellation: Wideband interference cancellation, based on novel Simultaneous Transmit and Receive (STaR) techniques suited to the antenna surface designs.
• Digital Pre-Distortion: Digital predistortion of RF amplifiers under load to enable wideband multi-carrier operation with minimal impact from in-band distortion.
• System simulator: A high fidelity electro-magnetic simulation environment has been established and is being used to assist with validation and future proofing of the array designs.
• Thermal Management: Novel semiconductor design combined with electronic fabrication techniques to improve thermal management.

Industry Briefing Day

DSTG will provide a research program brief to all interested parties via Microsoft Teams on 07 October 2021 at 10.30am (Adelaide Time). This will provide an opportunity for clarifications and questions to be raised. Any further questions after this brief will need to be provide in writing with DSTG providing a written response that will be provided to all parties. Nominations to attend the briefing are to be forwarded in writing to the MFA mailbox: MFA-NGTF@dst.defence.gov.au to be provided with a Microsoft Teams invite.

For security purposes: Full Name, Organisation, Position, Mobile Telephone No. and email address of all nominated personnel are to be included at the time of nomination.

Contact Officer and RFP Inquiries

Proposers are to direct any questions or concerns regarding this RFP in writing to the Contact Officer.

Email: MFA-NGTF@dst.defence.gov.au

Proposers may submit questions or concerns to the Contact Officer up until five Working Days prior to the Closing Time specified in the Tender Details Schedule.

The call for proposals is now closed.

How can we use subtle signals from the human body to detect and react to infection (or chemical exposure) before we get sick?

In partnership with DMTC, we are looking for people with experience in sensing systems, advanced biotechnology and data analytics, to share knowledge, experience, and ideas at our Human Integrated Sensor System (HISS) collaborative workshop.

This workshop will be run as part of the Department of Defence’s Operating in Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Environments (OCE) STaR Shot. It is one of the core future focused problems Defence and DSTG are prioritising as part of the More, together Defence Science and Technology strategy – the sort of problem that we can’t solve without significant advances in science, technology and research, alone. We want to collaborate with industry and academia to solve this challenge.

The problem

OCE is arguably one of the hardest assignments that our warfighters have. Not only do they have to perform strenuous tasks such as fighting an adversary or supporting civilians in the aftermath of a disaster, they have to do these tasks in the presence of extremely dangerous and most times invisible threats that can spread rapidly and widely if uncontained.

The devastation of CBRN attacks can be harmful not only to our warfighters, but to civilian communities, individuals, flora and fauna including livestock intended for consumption. It is a unique challenge to have to defend against something you may not be able to see, hear, touch or smell.

Currently, more than 30% of the Australian population is locked down due to COVID-19. We can all relate to the challenges associated with controlling the spread of infectious disease and the debilitating effects of outbreaks.

Imagine if we had the capacity to detect infection within hours of exposure, rather than days, by simply probing for cues from our own bodies. It would be a game-changer that would allow us to get ahead of the spread.

This is the type of challenge that the Human Integrated Sensor System (HISS) initiative, a collaboration of the Department of Defence’s Operating in CBRN Environments STaR Shot and the DMTC, seeks to tackle - in the context of Defence but with the view to extend to civilian application (e.g. in Public Health and National Security).

The HISS will draw together leading edge and commercially available wearable sensors and pair them with advanced data analytics approaches to assimilate subtle cues of exposure/infection and give warning before obvious symptoms manifest. This will allow countermeasures to be enacted with greatest effect. Systems are likely to involve heterogeneous networks of sensors and may involve on-skin and/or sub-cutaneous/bio fluid measurement.

What we are looking for

If you have the skills and experience in these areas and are interested in taking part in the HISS collaborative workshop, please submit your interest in our HISS Collaboration Workshop by responding to our RFI below. Or visit our website for more information.

We can’t solve these challenges alone. We want to partner and we want to partner early so that together we can explore what’s possible and co-design our way forward.

The Defence Human Sciences Symposium (DHSS) is the principal Australian forum for those interested in the application of human sciences research to enhance Defence capability. DHSS 2021 will be co-hosted by Victoria University and the Department of Defence between 29 November – 01 December at Victoria University's Footscray campus and online.

The theme for DHSS 2021 is 'Human Performance Leading the Way'. The Defence Strategic Update 2020 and the Defence Science and Technology Strategy 2030 both highlight the fundamental role of Defence’s people as individuals, in small teams, and interacting with technology and information, in contributing to a strong, more capable, and effective Defence enterprise. Human performance research is essential to ensure that the Australian Defence Force is able to meet the challenges of the future operating environment. This will likely require academia, industry and DSTG working with the Australian Defence Force, National Security, other government agencies and overseas partners. DHSS 2021 will provide a forum for delegates from academia, industry and defence to showcase human performance research that has the potential to contribute to Defence outcomes.

Submission requirements

Abstract submissions are now closed. The review committee will consider submissions describing theoretical and applied research, as well as discussion papers, and papers describing work-in-progress. All Defence co-authored submissions should be classified no higher than OFFICIAL, Public Release.

Further information

For further information about the event, please visit the DHSS 2021 event page.

Proposals are sought from budding AI specialists around Australia to solve AI-related challenges for Defence and the national intelligence community.

Under Round Two of the 'Artificial Intelligence for Decision Making' initiative, a maximum of $20,000 is available to undertake a 3-month project addressing one of a number of pre-defined AI-related challenges.

Funded by DSTG and the Office of National Intelligence and delivered on a national basis through the Australian Defence Science and University Network, the initiative is aimed at growing Australia's AI capability and fostering a national community focussed on developing innovative AI solutions for Defence and national security.

Applications are now closed.

More information is available on the Defence Science Institute website.