News story: Accelerator Innovation Network Event: Future Aviation Security Solutions

Suppliers attending the event will be able to hear presentations about the finding explosives hidden in electrical items themed competition which seeks to make a real difference in aviation security through innovative science and technology.

If you cannot attend the event, you can attend our webinar which will be announced shortly.

The competition is looking for proposals for technologies to improve our ability to prevent explosives hidden within electrical items in hand luggage from being taken on board an aircraft.

This Accelerator competition is part of the wider Department for Transport and Home Office Future Aviation Security Solutions (FASS) programme. This programme will invest £25.5 million over a 5 year period (2016-2021) to promote innovation and deliver a step change in aviation security.

As part of an effective, efficient and passenger-friendly screening system we’re seeking new solutions that could provide an alternative to imposing bans on electrical items or additional laborious screening measures.

Through this competition we want to continue to improve our detection capability, reduce the risk of restrictive measures being imposed in the future and reduce the need for additional layers of security.

The challenges of this Accelerator competition are to enhance the detection of threats hidden in electrical items at:

• Challenge 1: central search
• Challenge 2: at a final departure screening point, where there are significant constraints on size, weight, power and portability

For both challenges, we’re not just looking for solutions to detect concealed explosive devices/components. We’d also be interested in solutions to identify electrical items that may have been tampered with, or which appear to be out of the ordinary. This could allow us to focus the more resource intensive detection techniques on a smaller number of items.

Up to £3 million is available for this themed competition.