The successful applicant(s) must be:

• established businesses, academic institutions, start-ups, SMEs, or individual entrepreneurs (academic institutions and RTOs must have a partner offering a clear route to market)
• UK based or have the intention to set up a UK base

DfE is open to joint applications to deliver the full scope of the challenge.

DfE are seeking scalable and cost-effective digital tools and methodologies to capture structural condition data immediately before demolition and analyse it to identify trends in defects across different construction types and structural arrangements in the education estate. This may be answered as discrete or a complete solution:

1: Data capturing and interpretation

and 2: Analysis to identify trends across different construction types and structural arrangements.

Applicants shall demonstrate how their proposals can capture structural condition data during a short pre-demolition window and analyse it to give reliable, engineering-based insights into structural defects, deterioration patterns and structural risks.

Challenge responses should explain how data will be captured efficiently and safely and how technologies or automated methodologies, will be used to interpret it and then analyse it to inform the overall structural condition. Successful data capture and interpretation will be able to identify the different deterioration that can occur for the various structural elements and materials used for historic school construction. Successful analysis approaches should be capable of identifying common patterns or trends in visible defects and signs of deterioration across different buildings and correlate these to the construction materials and structural systems present. Responses should also explain the interoperability between data capture and analysis tools and how data and analysis outputs can be ingested into DfE’s Common Data Environment (CDE).

The typical range of material systems used for structural elements is:

• Structural steel (welded, bolted, riveted)
• Structural timber, including trusses
• Reinforced concrete (Excluding RAAC, reinforced aerated autoclaved concrete, which will have been captured by separate pre-assessment)
• Masonry (brickwork and blockwork), solid or cavity with wall ties.

The range of structural elements is expected to include but may not be limited to:

• Ground slabs: Reinforced concrete
• Columns and beams and stabilising elements (braces): Steel, Reinforced concrete, masonry, timber
• Roof Framing (trusses and lattices): Steel, timber
• Suspended floors and flat roofs: Reinforced concrete, beams and decking (such as floor boards), reinforced concrete beam, concrete block infill, precast concrete and proprietary panels
• Load bearing walls: Masonry
• Chimneys: masonry, reinforced concrete

It is expected that some degradation types will be common to all materials:

• Water ingress effects, settling/movement of foundations or supports, movement from the as-built condition, workmanship issues from the time of construction.
• Unplanned structural alterations or mechanical damage through the building’s life such as cutting of members, removal of braces, removal of bolts, accidental impact etc

The typical deterioration of the differing materials can include:

• Timber: Wood boring insects, dry rot, wet rot, crushing, splitting, warping
• Steelwork: Corrosion, compression buckling, buckling over supports
• Reinforced concrete: Corrosion of rebar, spalling of surfaces, cracking, crumbling, contamination
• Masonry: Crumbling and spalling of faces, corrosion of cavity wall ties, cracking in bedding joints, cracking in bricks/blocks, erosion of mortar bedding joints

Following this challenge, successful applicant(s) may be invited to take part in a pilot study in up to 3 schools. Participation in the pilot is subject to DfE commercial procurement processes and budget availability.

Successful methodologies being tested in live SRP settings, must consider the following operating conditions and functional requirements:

• Buildings will only be accessible to suitably trained personnel and personnel access to some areas can be restricted.
• The data gathering approach must be “non-invasive” for safety reasons.
• Sites will have been handed over to an SRP contractor who will be responsible for all site operations. Attendees would need to follow all required site processes including health and safety procedures.
• Access will be limited to a short pre-demolition window, typically between asbestos removal and demolition commencement.
• Data capture and any on-site calibration or development activities shall take place following asbestos removal and soft-strip activities, when structural elements are more readily visible.
• Structural elements are unlikely to be fully exposed or cleaned prior to survey activities and may be dirty, dusty and remain partially obscured by residual materials.

For full functional and technical requirements, visit the Innovation Exchange site at the link below.

The following approaches are considered not suitable:

• Solutions that assess building fabric condition only. Proposals must identify defects and vulnerabilities in primary load bearing structural elements (roofs, suspended floors, stability elements, columns, load bearing walls etc.).
• Solutions requiring monitoring, repeat inspections or multiple site visits.
• Approaches that require significant changes to SRP contractor activities, demolition sequencing or site operations.
• Any approach that results in significant additional project costs or material impacts on project programme.
• Solutions that entail the removal of more materials to expose the structural elements.

Applicants should outline the expected costs for developing and piloting their proposed solution(s). Outline costs should cover:

• Development of a suitable automation tool
• Data capture requirements
• Data processing and analysis
• Associated licensing costs

DfE would like to understand costs associated with scalability of suitable solutions and would like indicative costs for applying the methodology in 1, 3, 5 and 10 school blocks. Consider that each block has a Gross Internal Floor Area (GIFA) of 2000m2 which may be spread over multiple levels.

Subject to DfE commercial procurement processes and budget availability, successful applicant(s) may be invited to pilot their solution(s) in live SRP settings. Adoption of successfully pilot solutions on future projects, where appropriate,will be subject to funding availability, relevant DfE approvals and compliant process.

The longer-term commercial opportunity is that, in the future, this may be adopted on the several hundred education buildings that are demolished every year, where is it appropriate based on a building’s characteristics and project specific constraints.

Participation by successful applicants in the challenge or pilot will not guarantee or confer preference in any future procurement. All future procurement will follow a compliant commercial process. Any subsequent deployment will be subject to DfE internal approvals, funding availability and demonstrated value for money.

• Launch of the Challenge Statement: Friday 23 October 2026
• Deadline for respondents: Friday 4 December 2026
• Shortlisted applicants will be notified: Tuesday 5 January 2027
• Challenge pitch day for shortlisted applicants: 11-15 January 2027
• Shortlisted applicants notified of the pitch result: Tuesday 2 February 2027

Following successful outcomes of the challenge, the pilot study is planned for summer 2027, aligning with typical construction programmes and intensive pre-demolition activities during this period while SRP school sites are largely unoccupied.