DASA Competition: Innovation in dermal protection against liquid chemicals

DASA (Defence & Security Accelerator) seek proposals that will help to solve the problem of providing dermal protection against liquid chemical contamination.

Opportunity Details

When

Registration Opens

20/02/2025

Registration Closes

15/04/2025

Award

DASA anticipate funding up to 10 proposals for each challenge, with a likely maximum of £100,000 each for Challenge 1 and £200,000 each for Challenge 2.

Organisation

DASA

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Find out more and apply

This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition is seeking proposals that will address the challenge of developing a solution to the problem of providing dermal protection against liquid chemical contamination. We are interested in treatments, fabric design, novel constructions or any other approach that prevents the penetration of low surface tension liquids.

The overall objective of this competition is to allow the manufacture of protective suits that meet the essential criteria against liquid and vapour given in NATO Standard AEP-72 Volume I – Recommended chemical, biological and TIC challenge levels. Additionally, products should meet the robustness testing detailed in “BS 8467:2006 – Protective clothing. Personal protective ensembles for use against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) agents. Categorisation, performance requirements and test methods”.

This competition is interested in solutions that move towards this goal. There are two separate Challenges in this competition.

Proposals submitted under Challenge 1 should detail a programme of work to demonstrate basic liquid protection properties, with potential to be progressed further towards the specific chemical warfare protection requirements, specified in Challenge 2. All proposals funded under this challenge will be invited to submit an additional proposal meeting the requirements of Challenge 2.

Proposals submitted under Challenge 2 should detail a programme of work to demonstrate a more comprehensive chemical agent challenge. The Technology Readiness Level of the final output for this work should be at least TRL5. For bids into Challenge 2 you must already have a technical solution which can be shown to pass the Challenge 1 criteria (evidence to be supplied within the proposal).

Who can apply?

DASA submissions are welcome from businesses in the private sector, academia, individuals (i.e. sole traders) and Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs).

Total funding available

The total possible funding available for this competition is £2.6 million (excluding VAT).

We anticipate to fund up to 10 proposals for each challenge. We are expecting proposals to cost no more than £100,000 for Challenge 1 and £200,000 for Challenge 2 , but we reserve the right to fund proposals higher than these amounts.

Project duration:

  • Challenge 1: equal to or less than 8 months initial work with possibility of 8 month extension
  • Challenge 2: equal to or less than 8 months

Supporting activities

Launch webinar

6 March 2025 – Launch webinar providing further detail on the problem space and a chance to ask questions in an open forum. If you would like to participate, please register on the Eventbrite page.

One-to-One teleconference sessions

12 March 2025 – A series of 15 minute one-to-one teleconference sessions, giving you the opportunity to ask specific technical questions to the competition team in a closed forum. Registration for these sessions will be available the day after the launch webinar on 6 March 2025, on the Eventbrite page. Booking will be on a first come first served basis.

Non-technical questions about the competition process should be sent to the DASA Help Centre, accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.

Collaboration survey

DASA encourage collaboration between innovators for this competition. To support this, we have a short survey to collect details of those who wish to explore collaboration possibilities. If you are interested, please complete the collaboration survey.

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