Defence, security and emergency-service operations increasingly depend on reliable PNT (Position, Navigation & Timing) data. Deliberate radio-frequency interference can degrade or deny these services, affecting personnel safety, operational coordination, asset tracking and decision-making. Organisations currently lack a scalable way to detect and map this interference across wide areas in near real time.
Existing approaches include fixed sensors, vehicle-mounted equipment and satellite-based observation. These methods provide valuable information but do not fully meet the operational need. Ground-based coverage is limited to locations where sensors are deployed, while multipath propagation and local environmental effects can reduce confidence in estimated source locations. Deploying a sufficiently dense network of dedicated sensing equipment would also create cost, logistics and maintenance burdens.
Authorised Android smartphones represent a potentially valuable distributed sensing network because they are already carried by personnel and may expose relevant GNSS and radio measurements. The challenge holder does not have the available specialist Android engineering capacity required to develop and validate a solution internally.
The Challenge
The challenge is to develop and demonstrate a secure, scalable and operationally useful distributed early-warning capability that uses measurements available from authorised Android smartphones to detect possible PNT interference and combine observations across multiple devices.
The solution should estimate the time, location, geographical extent and persistence of an event; determine whether the pattern is consistent with systematic interference rather than an isolated handset or environmental anomaly; and provide confidence-rated alerts and map-based information to authorised operational users.
Applicants are encouraged to propose technology-agnostic approaches. A lightweight Android application connected to a central analytics service is one possible architecture, but alternative solutions that satisfy the operational need are welcome.
The solution may draw on expertise from sectors including mobile software, distributed sensing, telecommunications, geospatial analytics, cybersecurity, anomaly detection and data fusion.
The solution provider will be eligible to apply for up to £60,000 to develop the proposed solution towards meeting this challenge. The funding will cover a 3 month project
At the completion of the funding period, the following outcomes would be desirable.
- A working prototype or demonstrator comprising the device-side capability, secure data service and analytics.
- A defined and repeatable method for identifying putative interference events and calculating confidence.
- Evidence from controlled trials, representative datasets or safely simulated scenarios demonstrating detection performance, false-alert behaviour, latency, location or extent estimation and device-resource impact.
- A security, privacy and data-governance approach suitable for further assurance.
- A scalable system architecture and development roadmap covering wider device support, operational integration and future field validation.
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Entrants to this competition must be:
- Established businesses, academic institutions, start-ups, SMEs, or individual entrepreneurs
- UK based or have the intention to set up a UK base
Your project must:
- Have a grant funding request up to £60,000 (eligible costs only)
- Start 1 March 2027 and complete by 31 May 2027
- Carry out its project work in the UK
- Intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
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Any solution proposed must:
- Detect indicators of unusual PNT and communication frequencies interference using data available from Android based devices.
- Combine observations from multiple devices to identify correlated events and reduce false alerts.
- Post incident, have the ability to display the event’s time, location, extent, persistence and confidence level.
- Differentiate likely systematic interference from events such as isolated device faults, local environmental effects or transient anomalies.
- Provide timely, actionable alerts and map layers through an interface suitable for users.
- Support deployment across a growing number of devices and operational areas without dedicated sensing hardware at every location.
- Adopt a ‘secure by design’ approach.
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A lightweight Android application connected to a central analytics service is one possible architecture, but alternative solutions that satisfy the operational need are welcome.
The following points should be considered in any solution:
- Operate on Android smartphones using measurements exposed by standard device GNSS and radio interfaces, without requiring additional handset hardware.
- Minimise battery, processing, storage and mobile-data demand so that normal device use is not materially impaired.
- Secure data generated both in transit and at rest, with appropriate authentication, access control, auditability and data minimisation.
- Manage differences in handset models, operating-system versions, firmware and sensor performance.
- Use robust anomaly-detection and data-fusion methods that express uncertainty and support confidence-rated outputs.
- Support integration or export through documented interfaces so that alerts and geospatial products can be consumed by authorised operational systems. Ideally interfacing to the challenge holders existing situatiional awareness software products.
- Provide a testable route to validation using controlled or safely simulated interference data and agreed performance measures.
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Any solution must:
- Function across mixed indoor, outdoor, urban, rural and mobile operating environments, subject to the capabilities of the host device.
- Tolerate intermittent connectivity by buffering observations and transmitting them when a secure connection is available.
- Operate only on authorised devices and within applicable legal, security, privacy, spectrum and organisational constraints.
- Be suitable for phased deployment, beginning with a controlled pilot and progressing towards wider operational use.
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The following would be out of scope:
- Solutions that depend on deploying a dense network of new, dedicated sensing hardware.
- Unauthorised monitoring of personal devices or collection of data beyond that required for the defined operational purpose.
- Active interference, transmission, counter-jamming or other functionality that could disrupt radio services.
- Proposals limited to a single handset alert with no capability to corroborate observations across a distributed network.
- Approaches that cannot provide a credible pathway to secure deployment and operational validation.
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Successful applicants will be given an opportunity to pitch to the challenge holder. The winning applicant, as selected by the company, will then be eligible to apply for up to £60,000 Innovate UK grant funding to kickstart the development of the proposed solution through a 3 month project. Selected solutions will be trialled with potential for further adoption if trials are successful.
The benefits package for a successful applicant may also include:
- Support from Innovate UK Business Connect
- Support in the development of a prototype or pilot
- Technical support
- Invitation to attend or present at Innovate UK Business Connect events
- A potential business collaboration
- Investor introductions (if investment is required)
- Support if any Innovate UK or similar competitions are relevant
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- Challenge launch: 5 October 2026
- Deadline for applications: Friday 6 November 2026
- Review of applicants: Monday 9 – Friday 13 November 2026
- Selection and notification of finalists: Friday 13 – Tuesday 17 November 2026
- Pitch Day: Wednesday 25 November – Wednesday 3 December 2026
- Confirm selected solution provider: By Friday 4 December 2026
- Submission to Innovation Funding Service (IFS): December 2026
- Project length: 3 months. (Starting by 1 March 2027 and complete no later than 31 May 2027)