The Defence and Security
Accelerator (DASA) is pleased to launch Point of Care Diagnostics
at the Front Line: Phase 2, a Themed Competition which
follows on from Phase 1.
Run on behalf of the Defence Science and
Technology Laboratory (Dstl), this competition seeks
cutting-edge technologies that enable clinicians to diagnose and
treat individuals following exposure to biological or chemical
agents.
Exposure to biological or chemical agents still represents a key
issue for deployed personnel. Outputs from this competition that
rapidly detect agents and enable quicker treatment will help
improve UK capability to manage and treat personnel affected by
virulent infectious agents or toxic chemicals.
Key dates and funding
£1 million (Exc. VAT) funding is available and DASA expects to
fund two proposals of up to £500k (Exc. VAT) each in value.
However, DASA reserves the right to fund one outstanding bid up
to £1M (Exc. VAT).
The deadline to submit a proposal is midday (BST) 22 September
2022.
Do you have an idea? Read the full competition
document and submit a proposal.
Enabling rapid diagnosis of biological and chemical
agents in approximately 1 hour
Current technologies that enable diagnosis of individuals exposed
to biological or chemical agents are time-consuming, resource
intensive and can only provide limited identification capability.
They often rely on laboratory facilities, where sufficient
infrastructure and expertise are available to interpret complex
data.
This themed competition seeks to address current limitations of
diagnostic technologies through the development of novel,
enhanced point of care diagnostic devices, which provide a result
in approximately 1 hour. The technology should also be able to be
used in proximity to the patient, and in demanding austere
locations.
Improved point of care solutions will enable clinicians to make
informed, high confidence, diagnoses that optimise the management
of affected individuals.
Challenge areas
This competition has one challenge area.
Challenge 1
PoC diagnostic devices submitted to this competition should
support one or more of the following requirements:
- Minimal or no requirement for manual sample preparation
(blood, serum, plasma, saliva etc).
- Provide a rapid (c. 1 hour or less) time to answer, to
facilitate delivery of timely information to clinicians to inform
treatment options.
- Provide high confidence information outputs with a minimal
level of false positives and negatives.
- Flexible and adaptable to integration of new assays for
additional analytes to facilitate identification of a broad
spectrum of agents.
To learn more about the challenge area of the
competition read the full competition
document here.
Webinar3 August 2022
This webinar will provide more information on the challenge areas
and how to submit a proposal. There will also be an opportunity
to ask questions in the Q&A. If you would like to get
involved, please register on the Eventbrite page.
Register
now
Submit a proposal
Do you have a solution or novel approach to improve our ability
to rapidly diagnose and treat front line exposure to chemical and
biological agents? Submit an idea and help DASA and Dstl ensure
diagnoses capabilities are informed by the latest research and
development.
Learn more and submit a
proposal.
