In our era of accelerating technological change, we have become dependent on the pervasiveness of information and digital technology. We have to adapt and remain agile to disruption by enhancing cyber defence capabilities, to ensure the security of UK Critical National Infrastructure and Defence.
To help secure our data and provide information advantage to UK Defence, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is pleased to launch a new Innovation Focus Area (IFA): Military Systems Information Assurance (MSIA).
This Innovation Focus Area aims to identify, develop and accelerate novel technical solutions for Information Assurance, as an alternative to cryptology, which is the traditional solution for information assurance or novel uses of existing cryptographic techniques.
Can you help? Read the competition document now and submit your idea
How much funding is available?
Funding for this IFA will be split by Technical Readiness Level. Less mature, lower TRL (2 – 4) proposals will be considered an Emerging Innovation while more developed, higher TRL (4 – 6) proposals will be considered a Rapid Impact:
- Lower TRL, emerging innovation proposals should bid for funding up to £150K to provide a proof of concept within a 6 month contract.
- Higher TRL, rapid impact proposals should bid for funding up to £350K to provide a concept demonstrator within a 12 month contract.
Read the full competition document to find out more
Seeking novel technical solutions for Information Assurance demands within the military operating environment
What is MSIA?
Military Systems Information Assurance (MSIA) is a project element within the Cyber Defence Enhancement through Life Project, funded as part of the UK Government’s Integrated Review of security, defence, development and foreign policy (IR).
The Defence Enterprise is expansive, comprising many Operational Technologies which are legacy. This presents a large and varied cyber-attack surface, increasing the increasing cyber threat to UK.
What solutions are we looking for to enhance information assurance?
The Military Systems Information Assurance (MSIA) IFA seeks alternative technologies and approaches that may not use cryptography or novel uses of existing cryptographic techniques. Proposals will need to account for the unique and hostile demands placed on information systems functioning under the challenging conditions of military operations. Examples include:
- innovative ways to provide assured information flow across both enterprise level architecture network and low bandwidth, intermittent comms channels
- innovative ways of securing data at rest
- innovative methods for authentication
- securing information in a Cloud environment, i.e. to secure data at rest and whilst being processed; this will focus on end user/system implementation as opposed to relying on the underlying cloud infrastructure
- novel key management solutions
Do you have a novel idea to address information assurance demands within the military operating environment?
If you have an in-depth understanding of emerging capabilities, technologies, initiatives and novel approaches that may help prevent bolster the UK’s ability to secure data, we want to hear from you.
The closing date for proposals of this IFA is 05 January 2022 at midday BST. A second cycle will run from 05 January 2022 to 02 March 2022.
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