The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is pleased to launch Cycle 2 the Defence Innovation Loan competition, which has £10 million to lend for innovative defence solutions.

Accessible to SMEs, and with a below market interest rate of 7.4% per annum, the Defence Innovation Loan provides an excellent opportunity to apply for affordable funds to help you commercialise your defence solutions.

Defence Innovation Loans: An introduction

Defence Innovation Loans: An introduction

How to apply?

Check out the full document and submit your idea.

Have questions? Speak to the experts at our upcoming webinar

DASA and Innovate UK will host a live webinar to answer all of your questions about Defence Innovation Loans, on Thursday 9th September. This is a great opportunity for you to ask questions to our panel of experts from both organisations, so you can ensure your application is a success.

Register Now

Catch up on our previous webinar

We received some great questions during our last Defence Innovation Loans webinar. Catch up on what you missed here.

How much is available for a Defence Innovation Loan?

The total of £10 million is available for the Defence Innovation Loan competition this year, of which comprises £5M from the Defence Innovation Fund and £5M from Army.

You can apply for a loan between £250,000 and £1.6 million with a below market interest rate of 7.4% per annum. This loan can cover up to 100% of eligible project costs to aid the commercialisation of the solution and overall term of the loan must not exceed 7 years.

Please note, Innovate UK will carry out the Defence Innovation Loan credit evaluation of this competition and you will enter into a loan agreement and security agreement with Innovate UK Loans Ltd.

Read the full DASA competition document for more information on Defence Innovation Loans.

Who can apply for a Defence Innovation Loan?

To apply for a Defence Innovation Loan you must:

• be a UK registered SME
• intend to exploit the results in the UK or overseas to make a significant and positive impact on the UK economy and/or productivity
• give evidence that your business is suitable to take on a loan

Please note, individuals, academic institutions, research organisations and large companies are not eligible for innovation loans.

What kind of innovation will be considered for a loan?

The Defence Innovation Loan is open to innovative ideas to improve the defence of the UK. Your innovation must be mature at TRL 6 or above, to ensure the solution can be commercialised within the time scale of the Innovation Loan. There also must clearly be evidence of a defence need for the innovative solution.

Two tracks of funding

The Defence Innovation Loan has two tracks of funding, covering general Defence solutions and more specific solutions for the Army.

Track 1: Defence Innovation Fund (£5M)

Track 1 is open to innovative ideas to improve the Defence of the UK.

Track 2: Army Innovation Fund (£5M)

Track 2 is open to innovations which align with any of the priority areas below and targets an Army end user.

Priority areas include:

• army Industrial engagement framework decision-support
• directed energy weapons
• human performance enhancement
• information advantage
• robotics and autonomous systems
• and more…

Ready to apply?

Read the full DASA competition document here.

For more on Defence Innovation Loans, watch the video below:

Defence Innovation Loans: Everything you need to know

Defence Innovation Loans: Everything you need to know

Aside from showcasing their natural beauty, these native species of flora and fauna, which include native species of daises and poppies, provide a huge boost to the local wildlife of the area they inhabit.

Some of these benefits include providing a critical habitat for pollinators such as honeybees, native bees and butterflies, improving soil and water quality and supporting an ecosystem for other local insects and wildlife. Graham Construction, are currently upgrading junction 25 connecting the M25 with the A10 on behalf of Highways England. At peak times up to 6,300 vehicles per hour currently travel through the junction roundabout, causing congestion and regular delays. The A10 southbound approach into the junction is also a congestion hotspot in Broxbourne.

Improvements when complete will include:

• Quicker journey times
• Increase in average speeds through the junction
• Less disruption following incidents
• Reduced congestion will increase future development and growth opportunities
• Improved local air quality

Indy Grewal, Highways England’s project manager, said:

We are always looking for ways to reduce the impact our business has on the environment and to enhance it where possible. It’s not just about operating in an environmentally responsible way, we also recognise that there’s a need to balance people’s needs to travel on our roads with doing all we can to protect the environment.

Highways England manages a road network that stretches for 4,300 miles, connecting people and places from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Penzance. It also looks after around 30,000 ha of green verge which contains a range of habitats supporting interesting plants and animals.

Highways England contractors are now obliged to create conditions for species-rich grasslands to thrive using low fertility soils. The verges will then be allowed to regenerate naturally or be seeded with wildflowers.

Ben Hewlett, Highways England Senior Environmental Advisor, said:

The M25 J25 shows that if we create the right conditions, wildlife will return very quickly. Going forward Highways England will be creating more spaces through its construction activities that provide vital habitat for wildflowers, insects, pollinators and other wildlife to thrive.

In December 2020, Highways England launched a new verge creation policy which will create the correct conditions for wildflowers to thrive, through the removal of topsoil from new areas of grassland created by Major Projects. Removal of topsoil lowers the level of nutrients in the soil making it a harsher environment for coarse grasses and weeds, making more room for wildflowers to establish and thrive.

Get more information on the M25 junction 25 scheme

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

A coronavirus (COVID-19) study has found that prevalence of the virus was lower in schools in June 2021 than in the autumn term 2020.

Round 6 of the Schools Infection Survey (SIS) – a study jointly led by Public Health England (PHE), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – was carried out in June 2021 across 141 primary and secondary schools within selected local authority areas in England.

The study looked at prevalence of COVID-19 infection among pupils and staff sampled in schools. The results from testing showed lower levels of current infection in pupils and secondary school staff than in the autumn term 2020.

The percentage of primary school pupils in school on the day of testing that tested positive was 0.27%, showing very little change from Round 5 (May 2021).

In secondary schools 0.42% of students tested positive, representing an increase from Round 5 but a significantly lower level than the autumn term 2020 (Round 1 and Round 2).

In secondary schools, 0.27% of staff tested positive for COVID-19 – infection was similar level to Round 4 (March 2021) and significantly lower than the autumn term 2020. For Round 6, the number of positive test results from primary school staff was too small to present due to statistical disclosure criteria.

SIS is not intended to be generalisable to England as a whole but does have good representation in the North West. Data for schools in the North West were compared to the wider community prevalence among children of comparable age taken from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey (CIS). This analysis showed that the prevalence of infection among pupils in schools was consistently lower at all time periods of the study.

The study also found that antibody seroconversion rates (the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 antibody test results changing from negative to positive following natural infection) among primary and secondary school staff were at the lowest level recorded by the study for the academic year. Between Rounds 5 and 6, seroconversion rates for primary school staff was 0.8 per 1,000 person-weeks and for secondary school staff 1.9 per 1,000 person-weeks.

Dr Shamez Ladhani, Consultant Paediatrician at PHE and study lead, said:

Through this study we’ve closely monitored the risks of COVID-19 in schools.

Latest results show that infection and antibody positivity rates of children in school did not exceed those of the community. This is reassuring and confirms that schools are not hubs of infection.

Keeping community infection rates low remains critical for keeping children safe and schools open safely.

Thanks to all staff and pupils up and down the country for playing their part in keeping transmission of the virus in schools low.

Dr Patrick Nguipdop-Djomo, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at LSHTM, and co-investigator of the study, said:

It is encouraging to see that the prevalence of COVID-19 infection in schools has remained lower than in the autumn term 2020, and the high vaccine uptake in school staff taking part in the study. This is a testament to the huge amount of work done in schools to prevent and reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Although the study is not designed to be representative of all schools in the country, SIS has also shown that infections in schools mostly reflect the patterns of infection observed in the local community, thus measures to reduce community transmission remain important.

The whole team working on SIS are grateful to the pupils, staff and parents taking part in this landmark study. With their collaboration and time we are able to better understand how best to respond to COVID-19 and protect the children and school staff.

Fiona Dawe, Deputy Director, Wider Surveillance Studies at the ONS, said:

It’s really encouraging that our results today show infection rates in the summer term 2021 were lower than in the autumn term 2020.

As we have now completed the final round of testing, I would like to say thank you to all our incredible participants for taking part in the study throughout the school year, especially during such uncertain times.

This study wouldn’t have been possible without them.

Round 6 also recorded COVID-19 vaccination uptake of staff at participating schools in the 14 local authorities. The study found that 92.93% of staff had received at least one vaccine dose by the end of June 2021, an increase from 86.60% at the end of May 2021, and from 62.94% at the end of March 2021. Of staff, 70.47% had received both doses, an increase from 43.13% at the end of May 2021, and up from 1.01% at the end of March 2021.

In a separate data release from Round 4 (March 2021) of antibodies in primary and secondary school pupils, antibody levels following natural infection were found to be lower in schools located in local authorities where community infection rates have been relatively low throughout the pandemic than areas where infection rates have been higher. These findings support the suggestion that infection rates in school reflect those of the community.

Overall, the data suggest that adult vaccination (including in staff), and other ‘school-gate’ measures such as the rapid asymptomatic testing programme, excluding bubbles and measures to limit the likelihood of transmission within the school site (for example, social distancing), have contributed to reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection in schools.

Background

Parental opinion on child vaccination recorded in Round 6 found there had been no significant change since Round 5 (May 2021); 40% of primary school parents and 54% of secondary school parents said ‘Yes, definitely’ they would want their child to have a COVID-19 vaccine; 3% of primary school parents and 6% of secondary school parents said they would ‘Definitely not’ want their child to have a vaccine.

Round 4 also measured conversion rates among pupils (the incidence of an oral fluid antibody test result changing from negative to positive). For all pupils combined, conversion rates were lower between Rounds 2 (December 2020) to 4 (March 2021) than between Round 1 (November 2020) to 2 (December 2020) at 5.7 per 1,000 person-weeks and 12.0 per 1,000 person-weeks respectively.

The closure of schools during the national lockdown from 5 January 2021 meant that the 3rd round of the COVID-19 Schools Infection Survey was cancelled.