Acoustic signal and information processing in the underwater environment: call for proposals
The MOD is seeking to fund this research at UK universities. Indicative funding and timescales are £1.2m for a single project of up to three years
This funding call from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) invites applications on the topic of active and passive signal and information processing in the underwater environment. Up to £1.2m is available for a project of up to three years duration. The award is expected to start and end within the lifetime of the USP consortium grant and may have a role in exploiting research from it.
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) will nominate reviewers to undertake peer review assessment of proposals. Dstl has identified several technical challenges of interest, grouped into three research themes.
- Information processing – this theme concentrates on fusion, performance metrics, automated tracking and the fundamental properties of signal processing techniques applied to problems associated with underwater targets and acoustic signals of interest.
- Optimised and adaptive sonar – the principal focus in this theme is on-the-fly adaption of one or more aspects of a sonar system, in order to optimise performance.
- Detection, classification and localisation –¬†detection, classification and localisation (DCL) are the traditional underwater defence acoustic signal processing issues. Detecting a target with sufficient probability is usually the first task, very often undertaken when the acoustic conditions are challenging.
MOD is looking for a well-rounded, coherent programme of work that consists of a good balance of innovative, challenging research and demonstration of potential applications of this research in defence and security applications. To this end active collaboration and close work with subject matter experts at Dstl and industry partners is strongly encouraged. Cross- disciplinary research is also encouraged and collaboration between universities is welcomed.
Full proposals (not more than 30 pages) must be sent to udrc@dstl.gov.uk by 19 August 2019.  More information can be found here.