To be eligible to submit a proposal into this competition you must be a UK registered business listed at Companies House, a sole trader, or an academic institution in the UK and intend to undertake the project work in the UK. Your organisation does not need to be UK-owned. Additional guidance for international innovators can be found here. Please read this guidance before contacting UKDI.

We 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.

The maximum number of bids submitted per organisation is limited to 3 submissions.

Contract start month: Aim to start May 2027

Project duration: 12 months to 24 months

Projects must complete between Technology Readiness Level 3-6 (i.e. TRL 3-6 should be achieved by the end of the project), and progress through at least one TRL during the project duration.

Electro-optic (EO) sensors are key to several military applications, including wide area detect and track for threat warning, target discrimination, and target identification. A particularly important attribute of EO sensors is their ability to discriminate and identify objects of interest. Additionally, EO sensors offer a complementary approach compared to radio frequency sensors, being able to detect objects in environments where radar is challenged (for example cluttered urban scenes), or to operate against targets that have a naturally lower radar signature (small and slow moving). Passive EO sensors also have the advantage of being able to sense in the military environment with high resolution, without generating radiation that could be detected by adversaries or threats.

The ever-evolving nature of warfare means that we want to invest in novel and resilient technologies, especially those that can provide additional sensing capability while functioning in contested or congested environments. We are looking for sensors which can extend the range of detection, expanding the variety of objects detected, provide additional information on targets, or increase the rate at which information can be gathered from the relevant environment.

These sensors could exploit any number of electro-optic phenomena, including conventional spatial information (shape) as well as active or passive spectral, polarimetric, three-dimensional or more exotic phenomena. To date, the vast majority of EO sensors use just spatial and limited spectral (3 colour) information, leaving a huge potential set of technologies and phenomena unexploited.

To provide the maximum advantage to our forces, sensors must be more effective than those of an adversary, indeed they should provide sustained outmatch in performance. Outmatch can mean the ability to operate at longer range than the adversary or providing other information on the scene. It can also involve more radically changing the concept of deployment of the sensor to achieve superior perception or improving operator effectiveness by understanding the situation more quickly (for example, by semantic information extraction) to respond to changes more quickly. In other applications, improved effectiveness may mean being able to do something completely novel that the adversary cannot or to be able to provide sense capability at a much lower cost so the number of sensors deployed can be greatly increased.

All domains, including space, are in scope for this competition.

We are seeking innovations in the field of electro-optic (EO) sensing technology for defence and security applications. Primarily this means sensors operating in the electromagnetic spectrum from the ultraviolet to the far infrared (200nm – 20µm in wavelength). Imaging sensors are in scope, as are those that provide detection of objects of interest with some additional information like bearing or range. Non-imaging sensors that may interrogate an object of interest and provide additional information about an object are also in scope, including Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), neuromorphic sensors, spectral sensing, vibrometry, and analysis of size/dimension information.

The Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of proposals should aim to achieve TRL 3 to 6  by the end of the project. It is therefore essential to show how your concept would benefit defence and security users and how it could be deployed.

Dstl will endeavour to make available some access to outdoor experimentation facilities at Dstl Porton Down (availability is subject to operational requirements). The Dstl facilities allow users to operate low TRL equipment, including laser systems, in a warm dry laboratory environment while being able to observe objects at extended ranges in real world conditions. Lasers can safely be used at the Dstl test range over specific paths, such that targets can be situated at a number of distances ranging from 150m to 4.4km. Subject to availability, successful bidders who would benefit from the opportunity to conduct a trial at range and demonstrate their developments to wider MOD stakeholders will be offered the opportunity to access the Dstl laser range for a week around Q3/4 2027 and Q3/4 2028. Any costs associated with trial attendance will be borne by the supplier but can be included in the proposal. The cost of the laser range will be met by Dstl.

Sensor concepts should be able to be integrated into a SAPIENT sensor network (BSI Flex 335).

At the end of the 2-year timeframe, there will be a symposium to which Dstl/MoD stakeholders will be invited. Contractors are required to attend to present the results of their work to stakeholders.

You must address one of the challenges below. Proposals should make clear which challenge(s) their solution addresses. Proposals that fulfil more than one challenge are acceptable, but rather than trying to make two related ideas which address different challenges fit into one bid, you are encouraged to consider submitting separate proposals to each challenge area to allow separate assessment of each idea (max. number of bids submitted per organisation is limited to 3 submissions). Any related bids should acknowledge any duplication or overlap of work (noting cost reductions should both proposals be funded), but all bids must be stand-alone proposals and not be dependent on another proposal being successfully funded.

1. Infrared active imaging
2. Detection and characterisation of laser sources on the battlefield and technologies to counter electromagnetic jamming
3. Cost effective wide area day and night sensing through challenging environments
4. Detection and ID of dim and distant targets in cluttered environments
5. Underwater environmental sensing and technologies for imaging through turbid media
6. Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) for 3D LiDAR data
7. Machine learning methods for Hyperspectral Imaging
8. Low SWaP-C Hyperspectral sensors for tactical platforms
9. High resolution imaging through aperture synthesis

For full challenge details, read the competition document.

UKDI has a team of locally based Innovation Partners that can provide support in working with UKDI. If you are a UK business, SMEs, start-up, sole trader, academic institution or research organisation, it is strongly recommended that you contact your local Innovation Partner to discuss your idea for any aspect of this competition.

Innovation Partners are civil servants employed by the UK Government.

To get in touch:

1. Register for an account on the UKDI submission service
2. Sign in to your supplier dashboard and select “Contact UKDI Innovation Partner” under guidance
3. An Innovation Partner will contact you within 15 working days

UKDI works with organisations of all sizes and backgrounds. You do not need previous experience of working with defence.

If you require support with submitting a proposal, please see our guidance documents.