D.Start Spark is looking for emerging and future technologies with the potential to provide game-changing capabilities for Australia's defence and national security.

Designed for research teams working on science and technology with a potential defence application, it is the first step towards understanding the customer and market for your project or idea.

The program gives you the skills, frameworks and mindset to determine 'proof of problem', demonstrating the value of your research project and how it addresses a problem in the defence market.

Applications for D.Start Spark are now open.

We are delivering D.Start Spark in partnership with CSIRO. Supported by the Next Generation Technologies Fund, D.Start Spark is looking for emerging and future technologies with the potential to provide game-changing capabilities for Australia's defence and national security.

About D.Start Spark

D.Start Spark is designed for research teams working on science and technology with a potential defence application. It is the first step towards understanding the customer and market for your project or idea.

The program gives you the skills, frameworks and mindset to determine 'proof of problem', demonstrating the value of your research project and how it addresses a problem in the defence market.

There is no cost to teams to participate.

What teams will get out of D.Start Spark

By the end of the two-day experience, participants will be able to:

• apply effective tools to articulate and iterate the unique value proposition of their research/idea
• apply effective tools to articulate and iterate the potential customer segments of their research/idea
• understand and experience a different approach to working on their research impact
• gain experience in presenting their research in a way that's focused on the problem they’re solving and the impact it has on the world
• better understand the potential defence application for their research/idea. 

How D.Start Spark is delivered

D.Start Spark is a high intensity, fast-paced two-day program delivered virtually by our expert facilitators in a workshop format. There is some pre-work required and there will be one day in between the two sessions, in which time your team will have activities to complete.

How to apply

Applications for D.Start Spark Winter 2022 are now closed.

Applying to participate in D.Start Spark is a simple, two-step process:

1. Submit an online application: Each team is required to fill out an application via the online application portal. Access to the portal will be made available when applications open. Submitting the application will trigger an email to all team members listed in the application where they can confirm that their personal details are correct and agree to the terms and conditions and privacy notice. 
2. Application review and evaluation: At the closure of the application period, all applications will be reviewed by representatives of their lead organisation. This is to ensure that each team has engaged their sponsoring institute and has full support to participate in the program.

Each application is evaluated by multiple experts from our extended network. The highest-rated applications will be selected and invited to participate in D.Start Spark.

Applications are evaluated against how clearly they have articulated the following points:

• the problem that their idea/solution addresses
• the identified potential end-users or customers of their idea
• the solution and value proposition for their idea.

Successful teams will be notified approximately four weeks after the application closing date. To confirm the offer of a place in the program, each member of the team will need to complete an online form and their lead organisation will need to sign a participation agreement.

Applicants who do not successfully progress to D.Start Spark will be able to access detailed feedback from the evaluation process to help them refine and continue to work on their ideas.

The Next Generation Technologies Fund (NGTF) seeks proposals from academia, industry and other government research agencies in research activities across a range of AI-related focus areas.

This program of work aims to use artificial intelligence to process noisy and dynamic data in order to produce outcomes to provide decision superiority to Australian Defence. This may include the ability to fuse data and construct causal models from a wide range of modalities and diverse forms, in large volumes, and collected at varied rates. The diverse data types may range from physically measured sensor data to discrete or tokenised data such as in natural language documents.

The focus of this call is Patterns in Noisy and Dynamic Data.

Submissions are now closed.

Defence Artificial Intelligence Research Network (DAIRNet) Call

This specific call is on the problem of finding patterns in noisy and dynamic data using Artificial Intelligence.

Information (Data) patterns may be unclear and may indicate anomalies that need to be investigated or events of interest such as indications of a pandemic or an attack.

The data often will be from multiple sources, in diverse forms, in large volumes and collected at varied rates and may need to be combined before the patterns are manifest.

Proposals for up to 2.5-year research plans will be considered and successful proposals may be funded up to $100,000 in the first six months and possibly up to $500,000 in subsequent years. 

Experimental findings and prototyped concepts are the expected outcomes.

What are the research areas?

Several use cases have been gathered by the DSTG research teams, and provide examples for this general research area.

Examples include:

• The detection of the presence of chemical or biological threats and the prediction of how they are spreading may not be apparent until effects are observed in humans. Observations of subtle variations in biomarkers may lead to inferences that the human body has been exposed to toxic chemicals or dangerous biological pathogens. An ambitious aim is to detect such events before poisoning or infection has harmful effects, i.e. very early after exposure, to maximise the effectiveness of possible interventions. Major challenges arise from the fact that there are many causes for subtle biomarker variations; that these variations are not random; and that different humans react differently to threat exposure. Thus, it is important to develop new accurate and differentiating data analytics and inferencing methods in parallel with novel wearable sensor technologies;
• Significant amounts of data are collected for each flight an aircraft undergoes. In addition to the volume of data, there is a variety of data related to flight dynamics and various on-board sensors. One challenge is to use machine learning across this disparate data, looking for the signals that indicate anomalous events such as structural problems and predict times to failure in order to maximise uptime and availability of assets;
• Missions involving multiple agent coordination (involving for example unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles) in complex environments will utilise an array of different sensing modalities and information sources including text, imagery from radar, infra-red and lidar. The size limitations of these agents requires edge computing – algorithms that are relatively fast, use small memory and low power. An exemplar mission is finding hidden adversaries in congested, dynamic settings (e.g. urban) where information is multi-modal and requires fusion; objects of interest are moving and need to be tracked within limited fields of view; with operations at close range necessitating decisions being made in short timeframes. Object detection and tracking may necessitate moving sensors based on 3-D representations of the space of interest. Compute limitations may necessitate processing on other platforms. One aspiration is to automatically describe these complex scenes using visual narratives.

Application process

Submissions are to be made via AusTender.

Industry Briefing

DSTG will provide a research program brief to all interested parties via Microsoft Teams on 14 October 2021 at 2pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT).  This will provide an opportunity for clarifications and questions to be raised. Any further questions after this brief will need to be provided in writing with DSTG providing a written response that will be provided to all parties. Nominations to attend the brie1fing are to be forwarded in writing to the IISR mailbox: IISR@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: IISR@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 closes at 1400 (AEDT) on 11 November 2021.

Tender responses are to be submitted electronically via the AusTender website using the ‘Lodgement Page’ link on the ‘tender notification’.

Submit

AusTender provides an online automatic notification facility for registered users who have registered particular areas of interest in product and service categories. Registered users will then be notified of new business opportunities and planned procurements via email once business opportunities that match their specified profile are published. A registered user can edit their profile at any time to amend their notification profile or disable automatic email notification if it is no longer required.

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.

Defence has partnered with Australian non-profit Common Mission Project Limited (CMP Ltd) to support the establishment of the D.Start Catalyst program across several Australian universities.

Students participating in D.Start Catalyst will join a growing movement to make the world a safer place by using modern innovation tools and techniques to solve defence and national security problems.

D.Start Catalyst builds on the success of established United States and United Kingdom programs – Hacking for Defense (H4D) and Hacking for MoD – as well as a pilot program using the same methodology, known in Australia as Hacking for National Security (H4NS), at the University of New South Wales in early 2021.

D.Start Catalyst is a key element of the Next Generation Technologies Fund’s Defence Research Accelerator program that helps to create an understanding of the Defence problem space within the Australian educational and entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is also part of Defence’s effort to reach the STEM community and to attract the best and brightest into Defence and defence industry careers.

Student-entrepreneurs are empowered through the D.Start Catalyst program to solve real-world defence and national security challenges. Small teams of students enrolled in Master’s degree programs in a variety of fields will apply lean start-up methods to problems posed by Defence.

The new partnership with CMP Ltd permits Defence to draw on expertise from the US and UK programs, deliver training for Defence problem sponsors and Australian university staff, and coordinate the delivery of D.Start Catalyst courses at Australian universities.

Proven Methodology in the US and the UK. Powerful Network.

In 2016 Stanford University initiated the H4D program in its Department of Engineering. That success led to the formation of a US non-profit organisation called Common Mission Project (CMP) in partnership with the US Department of Defense. Since then, CMP has delivered H4D courses at more than forty US universities.

In 2019, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and a UK-based branch of Common Mission Project launched Hacking for MoD. In 2020, the program expanded to seven top universities in the UK.

CMP’s programs are geared toward building and connecting an international network of entrepreneurs and university students with like-minded problem-solvers in government and academia to solve the challenges of our time. This is achieved by (1) leading mission-driven entrepreneurship academic programs, (2) training and supporting educators and student teams, and (3) convening the mission-driven entrepreneurship community.

Jamie Watson

Jamie Watson is the Founding Director of the Common Mission Project Australia. Prior to joining the Common Mission Project, Jamie spent more than 30 years working with Defence. As an operator and a researcher, Jamie has gained unique insights into the application of novel solutions to complex problems. Having held strategic Defence science liaison roles within Australia and the United States he has extensive experience in translating problem statements into research and development activities. Jamie is an experienced innovation instructor, coach, and mentor. He is driven by an insatiable appetite to deliver meaningful outcomes to beneficiaries. He holds tertiary qualifications in Maritime Engineering, Technology, and Urban Planning.

David Burt

David Burt is an experienced commercial advisor and Director of Entrepreneurship at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) where he leads UNSW Founders, a program that helps UNSW students, scientists and alumni to turn their ideas and scientific research into startups. David is globally recognised as an expert in technology commercialisation and is currently the Non-Executive Chairman of RapidAIM, a Non-Executive Director at Cicada Innovations and a member of the Silentium Defence Advisory Board. He was previously the Executive Manager of Innovation at the CSIRO where he founded and led the ON Program technology accelerator. David was a driving force UNSW's pilot of the Hacking for National Security program. He has been a mentor and an adviser to the Common Mission Project Limited team from its establishment.

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.

Are you working on something with the potential to shape national security? Could your science or technology give our Defence Force an edge?

D.Start Ignite is an innovation and entrepreneurship program that empowers Australian researchers and small to medium enterprises to connect with Defence, identify a real-world application for their science or technology and attract the resources they need to translate it to capability – at pace.

Delivered under the Next Generation Technologies Fund, D.Start Ignite is looking for emerging and future technologies with the potential to provide game-changing capabilities for Australia's defence and national security.

Test. Validate. Engage.

Through expert guidance from your facilitation team, you will be better placed to understand and navigate the complex Defence and Defence Industry landscape.

Identify your ideal customer. Start the conversation and validate the problem you solve.

D.Start Ignite will open doors you never thought possible and fast-track your understanding of how to do business with Defence.

Leverage DSTG’s experience as Australia’s trusted, national defence science and research agency and start your journey today.

Proven Methodology. Powerful Network.

Purpose-built for big ideas with dual Defence and civilian application, D.Start Ignite is an eight-week hands-on learning experience.

Delivered remotely for teams of two to five members it is modelled on the highly successful national science and technology pre-accelerator program ‘ON Prime.’

Delivered by the Department of Defence in partnership with CSIRO, D.Start Ignite combines expert knowledge with powerful connections to help increase opportunity for successful translation. 

Who can apply?

The program is open to Australian businesses, research organisations and their teams working on science or technology for Defence application.

Teams can apply at any stage of their project and in any discipline. We are particularly interested in teams that have yet to explore Defence as a potential customer for their innovation or are keen to explore new pathways for commercialisation  

What we’re looking for

We are interested in technologies with the potential to address DSTG’s mission-directed STaR Shots (Science, Technology and Research Shots) and deliver game-changing capabilities for Australia's defence and national security.

• Resilient Multi-mission space
• Information Warfare
• Agile Command and Control
• Quantum assured position navigation and timing
• Disruptive Weapon Effects
• Operating in CBRN environments
• Battle Ready Platforms
• Remote Undersea Surveillance

We are particularly interested in technologies within the Next Generation Technologies Fund priority areas with potential to contribute to the STaR Shots. Teams working on technologies that address the following priority areas with the potential for dual-use applications in the commercial market are highly encouraged to apply.

• Integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
• Space capabilities
• Enhanced human performance
• Medical countermeasure products
• Multidisciplinary material sciences
• Quantum technologies
• Trusted autonomous systems
• Cyber
• Advanced sensors
• Hypersonics
• Directed energy capabilities

The application process 

Applications for D.Start Ignite are submitted online in our application portal. An application takes approximately an hour to complete. 

All PFRA applications that are submitted are reviewed by their sponsoring institute to ensure that each team has the full support of their sponsoring institute to participate in the program.

Applications undergo a comprehensive online evaluation process by a panel of external Defence, science leaders, and commercial experts. Applications are judged per the eligibility criteria and are evaluated according to the description of the problem, end-users/customers, and solution.

Successful applicants are notified approximately two weeks after the application period has closed.

Apply now before 11:59pm (AEDT) Friday 21 January 2022.

View the D.Start Ignite 2021 Winter Cohort

View the D.Start 2020 Spring Cohort

What’s the commitment?

2 hours facilitated learning per week. 1 x 1-hour coaching session per week and dedicated time and permission to focus on your project for the full eight-week program.

D.Start Ignite is free to participate and all IP and equity remains the property of the participating team or their sponsoring business or institute.

During D.Start Ignite, your team will test paths for your IP, know-how or technology through a process of customer discovery and market validation to help build entrepreneurial and business model capabilities.

You’ll ensure you’re working on the right problems, targeting the right markets and capitalising on the best opportunities.

As the world becomes more complex and our battlespace evolves, there has never been a more critical time for Australia’s research and business community to rise to the challenge! 

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.

Up to $1M is available for proposals to enhance the ADF's resilience against chemical and biological threats.

The Hazardous Agent Challenge is open to multidisciplinary teams from industry and academia across Australia. 

Innovative proposals are sought for prototype demonstrators in the following areas:

• Sensing: Novel sensor technologies and heterogeneous sensor networks for early detection of chemical or biological threats or accurate characterisation of low concentrations of toxic industrial chemicals at large standoff distances.
• Human Resilience: The translation of data gathered from non-invasive wearables into actionable insights that would enhance the warfighter's ability to predict and extend their capacity to perform their mission when operating under the threats and stresses of a CBRN environment.

Further details about the call-out are available on the DSI website.

Submissions are now closed.

Australian universities are invited to submit proposals under the Australia-US International Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (AUSMURI) 2021 designated topic 'Bio-architected Responsive Materials with 3D Nanoscale.'

AUSMURI is part of Defence's Next Generation Technologies Fund (NGTF) and an Australian university selected to be part of an Australia-US collaborative research project through the US Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program may be eligible for funding up to a maximum of AUD$1 million a year over three years, with a possible extension for a further two years.

The topic for AUSMURI funding has been selected by Defence from topics announced by the US Department of Defense MURI program.

Topic Selection

The designated topic, 'Bio-architected Responsive Materials with 3D Nanoscale', is aligned with the NGTF theme of Advanced Materials.

It is expected that the project will generate new concepts and techniques using Synthetic Biology to create new advanced materials based on biological material modification and addition as well as new pathways and combinations of materials science, /biology, computing and engineering.

Developed concepts and techniques may support the development of:

• Materials that self-heal after damage (e.g. armour, windshields, airframes, clothing, composites and robotics);
• new reactive coatings and adhesives;
• optical and electronic sensors;
• alternative fuels;
• anti-fouling coatings;
• active textiles;
• higher-strength materials than are available today.

The new materials may be dynamic, self-organising, multi-functional, responsive, and autonomously adaptive.

If an Australian university is selected to be part of a US–Australia collaborative research project, the Australian University can apply for AUSMURI funding.

White Papers for the prerequisite MURI Round 2021/22 are now closed. Applications for the prerequisite MURI Round 2021/22 are now closed.

Check out the AUSMURI grant page for more information about the program.