Launched In partnership with Medical innovation, the Med Surge initiative provides a unique opportunity for businesses to submit medical solutions that could be used by the UK armed forces in the future. Importantly for suppliers, if successful, they will be fast tracked through the procurement process with pilots and awarded contracts taking place within six months to one year.

The call for cutting-edge medical solutions is open to companies from the UK and overseas and is specifically looking for innovations that fit into six categories:

• prophylaxing combat trauma

• physiological and anatomical disruption

• predictive algorithms

• future transfusion strategies

• total wound care and telemedicine

• augmented reality and virtual reality

Proposals are now being accepted and companies can also meet with the jHub at Medical Innovation in October in Birmingham. The event, organised in partnership with the UK Defence Medical Services, focuses on developing the medical capability of tomorrow that will help save lives in the future.

Air Vice-Marshal Bruce Hedley, Director Joint Warfare within Joint Forces Command, commented:

jHub has been designed to help the UK Armed Forces seek out the world’s most innovative solutions that will help overcome specific challenges. By working with Medical Innovation we’re hoping to expedite the process of identifying unique new healthcare concepts and technologies that we can put into the hands of the user within a year.

Proposals for the Med Surge initiative can be submitted from the Medical Innovation site.

This DASA competition seeks innovative solutions to how the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and partners across Defence and Security can unlock the potential to understand human behaviour from the estimated 2.5 quintillion bytes a day of user uploaded data using ‘behavioural analytics’.

DASA will be holding a workshop on 13 September 2018 where stakeholders can help shape the scope of the new Behavioural Analytics competition. If you would like the opportunity to participate, please register your interest.

Further details are included in the workshop document found here.

The competition will see over £5 million of funding committed to innovation in this space, over a 26 month period, in a number of phases.

We are interested in a range of multi and interdisciplinary approaches (such as social, computer, neuro and info sciences) and would welcome interest from any organisation including academia, SMEs, and primes.

Places for the event are limited and so please register as early as possible to secure a place. If the event is oversubscribed, we may place a limitation on the number of attendees from a single organisation.

The full competition document launch will be held in October 2018 and further details will be available on the DASA website in due course.

Summary

At 14:21 hrs on Monday 14 August 2017, the rear 12 wagons of a freight train carrying containers derailed at Ely West Junction on the line between Ely and March. The train was travelling at 41 mph (66 km/h) at the time of the derailment. It ran derailed for approximately 350 metres, causing significant damage to the infrastructure.

The first wagon to derail was an FEA-A wagon fitted with Y33 bogies. The derailment occurred because the damping on the bogies of this wagon was ineffective. The damping had become ineffective because the damping components, which had been on the wagon since it was built in 2003, had been managed to incorrect maintenance limits. The limits did not account for future wear in the period before the next maintenance intervention and were also not compatible with the design intent of the damping system. In addition, the maintenance interventions since a General Repair in 2010 (the last time when these components had been measured) were ineffective in identifying the worn state of the components. It is also probable that the company responsible for the maintenance of the wagon did not appropriately validate the General Repair maintenance specification used in 2010 to confirm that it would ensure continued safe operation up to the next planned General Repair due in 2017.

The fleet of wagons has since gone through General Repair and all of the damping components have been replaced.

Recommendations

The RAIB has made one recommendation to the company responsible for the maintenance of the wagons to review its maintenance documentation to ensure that the bogies on its freight wagons remain adequately damped at all times. In addition, the RAIB has identified three learning points. The first reminds those responsible for updating maintenance instructions that repair limits quoted in guidelines or by manufacturers should not be used as maintenance limits as this provides no future operational life. The second learning point reminds Entities in Charge of Maintenance that they should have a validated system of maintenance that ensures that the vehicles for which they are in charge remain safe for operation. The final learning point reminds maintainers of this type of bogie that some of them are fitted with an inspection window to allow the damping system components to be visually examined.

Notes to editors

1. The sole purpose of RAIB investigations is to prevent future accidents and incidents and improve railway safety. RAIB does not establish blame, liability or carry out prosecutions.
2. RAIB operates, as far as possible, in an open and transparent manner. While our investigations are completely independent of the railway industry, we do maintain close liaison with railway companies and if we discover matters that may affect the safety of the railway, we make sure that information about them is circulated to the right people as soon as possible, and certainly long before publication of our final report.
3. For media enquiries, please call 01932 440015.

Newsdate: 2 August 2018

The Dive Team were heavily reinforced by members of the Royal Engineers Sports Diving Association and training took place over many months to ensure both teams were ready to dive in this remote location.

HMHS Glenart Castle sank 100 years ago when she was torpedoed by a German U-boat, resulting in over 160 lives lost including Medical Officers and Nurses. She currently lies at 73m in the Bristol Channel, 40 nautical miles from Padstow. During the dive two memorial plaques were fixed to the wreck on behalf of Royal Centre for Defence Medicine and the Thame Remembers Project; these plaques marked the centenary of the sinking and the end of World War 1.

The dive was poignant to those working for Defence Medical Services and the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine as the newly opened modern Tri-Service Mess for those serving at the Royal Centre Defence Medicine, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham has been named after the Hospital Ship.

Major Henrietta Poon of the Royal Army Medical Corps said:

We remember the brave Medical Officers, Nurses and Service Personnel who perished onboard HMHS Glenart Castle. It was a particularly poignant moment for me as a serving Military Doctor to complete this dive and lay tributes at their final resting place.

The Commanding Officer of the Royal Centre Defence Medicine, Colonel Jo Palmer, said:

This challenging project to place Commemorative Plaques on HMHS Glenart Castle is a fitting tribute to all those on board who gave their lives whilst serving their country, and illustrates the enduring nature of the ethos and values of the military medical services.

• Harvard Professor Jason Furman will lead government expert panel
• he will consider how to guarantee new tech markets support competition in the UK
• data could be worth £60 billion a year to the economy by 2020

Plans to ensure the UK remains at the centre of the digital revolution have been set out today (2 August 2018) by the Chancellor.

A new expert panel – chaired by former US President Barack Obama’s chief economic advisor, Professor Jason Furman – will look at competition in the digital economy, and how to make sure the UK remains a world leader in this field.

While the UK has a competitive and well-regulated economy, rapid advances in the digital sector have led to the emergence of powerful new companies. This has raised questions about how to guarantee a competitive economy, while respecting people’s privacy and ensuring the whole of society can benefit from technological progress.

The appointment was unveiled alongside the publication of a government report on the value of data. This cited evidence that data-driven technology could be worth £60 billion a year to the UK economy by 2020.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, said:

The UK is leading the way in the digital revolution. Our tech sector is now worth over £116 billion and a new digital job is being created in this country every 50 minutes.

This is something to be proud of, but at the same time it is only right that we ask the big questions about how we ensure these new digital markets work for everyone.

I am therefore pleased to appoint Professor Furman to lead this important work. His experience will be invaluable as we ensure that our market regulating institutions are fit for purpose in the digital age.

Professor Jason Furman said:

While digital markets have produced significant consumer benefits, including in the UK, we need to fully understand how competition policy needs to adapt going forward.

Our focus needs to be on ensuring that consumers continue to benefit from these new technologies while maximizing the innovative potential from the economy.

I am pleased to lead this panel and look forward to bringing my experience to this important piece of work of international interest.

The panel will be made up of thinkers with an in-depth knowledge of competition law and digital markets. It will examine the UK’s competition regime in the context of the digital economy. It will consider questions such as:

• how to ensure new firms can adequately compete, allowing choice to consumers and encouraging innovation
• the best approach to handle mergers between tech companies
• the impact on competition of having data held within a few big companies
• the pros and cons of digital markets becoming concentrated, between only a small number of companies

The paper considers ways that the UK can further capitalise on the opportunities presented by an increasingly data-driven economy and will inform the development of the National Data Strategy, announced in June.

The panel will also provide an independent voice to support the ongoing review of competition law announced in the Modernising consumer markets green paper.

Further information

Professor Jason Furman served as the top economic advisor in the Obama administration, including his role as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers from August 2013 to January 2017, acting as both chief economist and a member of the cabinet. In academia, he has conducted research in a wide range of areas including: fiscal policy, competition policy, tax policy, health economics and international and domestic macroeconomics.

The panel will run from Sept 2018 to early 2019, culminating in a final report of recommendations to government.