This meeting is hosted and facilitated by the South West Regional Defence & Security Cluster

What is the South West Regional Defence & Security Cluster?

The South West Regional Defence & Security Cluster (SW RDSC) is the first pan-Defence and Security cluster in the UK, having launched on November 4th 2020. It forms a collaboration led by industry and academia with the support of government and its ministerial departments such as the MOD and its innovation directorate, including the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA). The Cluster seeks to aggregate and raise the profile of regional Defence & Security (D&S) capability to stimulate greater sector knowledge, business, economic growth and productivity across the South West region. It will attract businesses of all scales with an interest in D&S to deliver new sector and cross-sector capability. It aims to apply a ‘Team UK’ approach to enable more joined up working between industry, academia and government, providing an efficient and accessible route to industry curation and the region’s D&S value chain.

For further information about the Cluster and how your organisation can get involved, please contact southwest.rdsc@outlook.com

About this Event

Join Mike Madden, the South West of England Innovation Partner for the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) for an event on what to look out for when considering submitting a proposal to DASA. He will cover:

• Registering a DASA account.
• Submitting an outline proposal.
• Working with innovation partners.
• Submitting a full proposal.
• Assessment criteria and what is expected in the proposal format.
• Considerations that need to go into the finance section of a proposal.
• How proposals are assessed and what the DASA decision-making process is.
• What happens after the DASA decision conference, including contracting, the issue of feedback and resubmission

What is the Defence and Security Accelerator?

DASA finds and funds exploitable innovation to support UK Defence and Security, quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity. DASA is open to anyone with a good idea that could be of potential benefit to Defence or Security, and offers simple mechanisms to apply for support and funding.

Who is the Event Host?

Mike Madden, the DASA Innovation Partner for the South West of England, is a member of the SW RDSC Board. His DASA role is to seek out innovative ideas and novel research and development in his region which could be of benefit to Government Defence and Security stakeholders. In addition, he offers advice to innovators on how their innovations could connect with Defence and Security challenges. Mike has a wealth of experience in DASA processes as well as in mentoring and advising businesses on how to nurture and accelerate innovative ideas. Mike has worked at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) since 2009, joining DASA earlier this year. Prior to that Mike was an officer in the Royal Air Force Regiment, and thus has first-hand experience of Defence from an end user perspective.

Who should attend and why?

DASA seeks ideas from across academia and industry, including SMEs, micros, established businesses, spin-outs and third sector organisations. Applicants are frequently new to DASA and may not have supplied the Defence or Security sectors previously. We are interested in meeting and connecting with any and all businesses, both big and small, and those from academia in the South West of England. If you are curious or think your idea could be adapted to benefit UK Defence & Security, then come along and get some insights into how to work with DASA successfully..

Further information:

For further information please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/defence-and-security-accelerator