Made in Britain extends a call for proposals for innovative and novel products. This call comes through Made in Britain’s work with the Ministry of Defence and associated partners. Proposals for funding of between £50,000 and £500,000 are encouraged. The deadline for proposals is 2 July.
Specifically, the call is for products and technologies that will enable UK defence to achieve greater self-sufficiency and operational endurance for a deployed force, allowing the force to be more resilient, agile and self-sustaining.
The call covers a number of areas. Those we deem as most relevant to Made in Britain members are listed below. For more information on the call and how to prepare and submit a proposal, please email: trade@madeinbritain.org.
Water – harvest and recycle water with increasing efficiency
Proposals should demonstrate aspects of the following:
• New technologies that include solutions without reliance on a direct water source to enable the proposed
technology
• Capture and recycle operational waste water (including but not limited to sewage, black, grey and rain water)
into potable/non-potable water
• Whilst deployed, process locally available water into potable/non-potable water, using less energy than existing ground source water techniques
• Future capability would ideally be modular and scalable to be able to produce/treat sufficient water at the
different distributed nodes/locations within the deployed space
• Innovative water extraction and/or recycling methods
• Innovative short term storage methods
Waste – trash into treasure
Proposals should demonstrate aspects of the following:
• Ability to recycle, regenerate, repurpose and/or re-use biological and organic waste into a needed resource
• Demonstrate the ability to recycle and/or re-purpose non-organic waste into a needed resource; eg. energy,
materiel (clothing, weapons, tools, parts, vehicles) food and/or water
• Innovative solutions for packaging which can be re-purposed into a feedstock for a separate capability
• Reduction of current waste by volume or mass and/or capability to recycle, reuse and/or repurpose to produce either food, water, fuel, energy and/or enhance self-sufficiency of a deployed force
• The ability to enhance the circular economy, reduce waste, scalability, modularity and interoperability of a deployed force are desirable attributes of any innovation provided
Platform Power & Energy – enduring energy
Proposals should demonstrate aspects of the following:
• Safe operation of high energy lithium batteries in a kinetic military environment as well as under civilian/climatic stresses and strains
• Novel ways of utilising liquid fuel more efficiently or on smaller platforms/soldiers
• Increased temperature operating window of high energy batteries. A challenging target would be -40°C to +70°C but any significant improvement from current capability is of interest
• A step change in the energy density of primary thermal reserve batteries for missile and counter measures
• A step change in the energy density of high energy primary lithium batteries beyond that afforded by lithium thionyl chloride batteries
Platform Thermal Management – keeping cool for persistent power
Proposals should demonstrate aspects of the following:
• A step change in performance (e.g. flow rates), thermal capacity or power / energy density of defence cooling systems
• More effective removal, transfer, converted or re-used thermal energy (losses) from current and future defence systems
• Alternatives that can be used across multiple domains and platform applications
• Approaches that reduce (or at least do not increase) risks around materials and environmental constraints on working fluids
For more information on the call and how to prepare and submit a proposal, please email: trade@madeinbritain.org.
By Made in Britain 6 months ago | Government & Supply Chains