Call for Proposals:
Innovative Perception Capabilities for Uncrewed Maritime Systems
UK registered businesses and Canadian SMEs can apply to collaborate on joint R&D projects that allow Uncrewed Maritime Systems to operate safely in complex environments.
Closing date for applications extended until Sunday 04 December 23:59 GMT or 23:59 AST as applicable
Innovate UK and the Ocean Technology Council of Nova Scotia (OTCNS) are collaborating in an innovation challenge that will encourage and facilitate bi-country commercial partnerships that will result in breakthrough solutions for relevant challenges to the global blue economy ecosystem.
The purpose of the challenge is two-fold: the first objective is to advance the Canadian and United Kingdom ocean technology sectors by finding innovative solutions to a pivotal challenge facing each. The second objective is to encourage and facilitate bi-country collaborative projects that will result in commercial gain for both parties.
The Challenge
To develop an innovative modular, extensible, and adaptable perception solution that can be used for USVs and/or UUVs of different sizes and regulatory regimes, and be suitable for diverse:
- Vessel specific control, monitoring & support functions (e.g. propulsion, steering)
- Sensing suites appropriate for the environment(s) of operations (e.g. cameras, AIS, DVL, USBL)
- Mission management systems (e.g. control software for the on-board management and execution of the overall mission and operation of the USV/UUV)
- Communication systems (e.g. radio, cellular, satellite, acoustic)
Of particular focus will be "perception solutions" supporting real-time perception at-the-edge, with stringent size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints, for various autonomy levels.
The competition offers grant funding of $500,000 CDN in total.
Interested participants will be asked to submit proposals that address a specific problem statement. These proposals will be evaluated by an independent panel and interviews may be required - applicants must be available for possible interviews on 13 - 16 December 2022. Two winning proposals will be chosen.
Virtual Briefing Event | Monday 31 October 2022
15:30 - 16:30 GMT / 12:30 - 13:30 ADT
Watch the recording of the Virtual Briefing Event HERE to learn more about the scope for this competition, the application process, and submit questions to the competition panel.
Dates
- 05 October 2022 Competition Opens
- 05 October 2022 - 02 December 2022 Book Virtual Meetings with Potential Project Partners
- 31 October 2022 15:30 - 16:30 GMT / 12:30 - 13:30 ADT Virtual Briefing Event
- 04 December 2022 23:59 GMT or 23:59 AST as applicable Competition Closes
- 13 - 16 December 2022 Possible Interviews
- By 06 January 2023 Applicants Notified
- By 01 April 2023 Project Start Date
- 31 December 2023 Project Completion Date
Key Information
Full details of the competition summary, eligibility, scope, how to apply and supporting information can be found by clicking the "Funding Competition 2022" tab at the top of the page.
This b2match virtual matchmaking platform can be used to help identify organisations with specific skills and expertise to form or join a project team, or to offer capabilities to other project consortia.
Simply registering on this platform will enable project ideas to be outlined and sought after capabilities to be requested, or expertise can be offered that may be of interest to other project consortia. The platform allows partner searching, requesting and accepting (or declining) meeting invitations, and conducting pre-arranged virtual meetings directly through the platform to discuss possible project collaboration.
Profiles for participating organisations can be found on the "Participants" tab, project skills and expertise sought or offered on the "Marketplace" tab, and further details on the meeting process are located on the "How it works" tab.
If you have any questions or require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the Innovate UK EDGE team on email enquiries8@innovateukedge.ukri.org
