Collection

Defence and Security Accelerator Themed Competitions

Details of our past themed competitions.

You can submit a Defence and Security Accelerator proposal either to our Open Call for Innovation or in response to the technical challenges in a specific themed competition.

You can submit your themed competition proposal online once the full detailed competition document is published.

Summary competition documents may be published a few weeks in advance of full competition document releases.

For a list of all open competitions, please see here.

Themed Competitions

Details of all past themed competitions.

Updates to this page

Published 8 December 2016
Last updated 14 October 2025 show all updates
  1. 鈥dded Innovation in Support of Operations - Cycle 6 to past competitions

  2. Now includes Innovation in Support of Operations cycle 5's competition details

  3. Added AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge

  4. Competition: Innovation in Support of Operations Phase 2 (Cycle 4) added to the past competitions section.

  5. Added Competition: Innovation in dermal protection against liquid chemicals

  6. Added the competition document for Innovation in Support of Operations Cycles 1, 2 and 3 to past DASA competitions.

  7. Future-proofing biosecurity by strengthening the UK's Microbial Forensic Capability - competition added

  8. PYRAMID Competition added to collection

  9. Added AWE doc to Past Themed

  10. Protecting Physical Assets from UAS Attack Competition added to past competitions list

  11. Added Contemporary Deception competition to past competitions

  12. Competition closed: Delivering operational advantage via improved self-sufficiency

  13. AUKUS EW Challenge added to past competition list

  14. Sample Preservation, Analysis and Attribution added to past themed competitions section.

  15. Small, Lightweight Trace Explosives Detector competition added. Mobile Evidential Drug Testing Instrument (MEDTI) themed competition added.

  16. Rapid Detection of Toxic Gases Competition added

  17. Added competition to the past competition list - Remote Monitoring of Sensitive Sites Phase 2: Security & Resilience

  18. Added the themed competition It's Good for Missiles to Talk (Phase 2) to the past competitions section of Gov.uk

  19. New competition added - Windfarm Mitigation for UK Air Defence Stream 2 Phase 3

  20. Added Engineering Biology for Defence and Security (Phase 2) as it has now closed

  21. Novel Disruptive Science Impacting Future Defence and Security has been added to the list of past competitions.

  22. Reducing Cyber Risk Across Defence has closed, and been added to past themed competitions.

  23. Innovative Research Competition 2023 added to past competitions

  24. Added 2 past competitions, Charlie Drop and Humans in Systems

  25. Affordable and Adaptable Unmanned Air Systems Autonomy has now closed. It has been added to the Past Themed Competitions page.

  26. The Human Augmentation Themed Competition has now closed.

  27. New Competitions added - Intelligent Ship (Phase 3) and Scoping out the Grey Zone: Sub-threshold AI

  28. Populating the World of Training (Phase 1) is now listed

  29. Added Understanding Whole Body Vibration themed competition

  30. Added the closed competition Novel Amphibious Craft to this collection.

  31. Details for themed competition CHERI within Defence and Security, are now listed.

  32. Competition: Disruptive Science and Technology Impacting the Future of Defence

  33. Point of Care Diagnostics at the Front Line Phase 2 has been added to list of past Themed Competitions

  34. Added the Veteran Health Innovation Fund Competition

  35. Added the following Themed Competitions: Engineering Biology for Defence and Security Generation-after-next Wearable Technologies

  36. Themed Competitions - Added Competition: It鈥檚 Good for Missiles to Talk

  37. Remote Monitoring of Sensitive Sites competition added

  38. Themed Competitions - Added Advanced Radio Frequency Sensing, Integrated Effects and PNT which closed on April 26th 22

  39. Add Telexistence Phase 2 to the past competitions

  40. Catch the ChemBio SCENT Themed Competition added to Themed Competition collection

  41. Space to Innovate Campaign - Alpha Drop, Look Out! Maritime Early Warning Innovations, Windfarm Mitigation for UK Air Defence Phase 2 and Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle Testbed Competitions added to past competitions collection.

  42. Right on time competition and wireless communications, networking and information theory competition added to the closed themed competitions list

  43. 2 New Competitions added

  44. The Telexistence competition has now closed and been added to the past competitions list.

  45. Added Innovative Research Call 2020 for Explosives and Weapons Detection to past competitions collection.

  46. Update of current competitions

  47. Events have been moved to the DASA events page. Open competitions are now listed in order of closing date on 'Apply for Funding' page

  48. Addition of Competition: developing the Royal Navy's autonomous underwater capability to the Group: Themed competitions (open now for application).

  49. New events added to current list

  50. Updated to include full competition document for tackling knife crime

  51. Addition of knife crime upcoming competition

  52. Maximising Human Performance Market Exploration now open.

  53. Many Drones Make Light Work Phase 3 now open.

  54. Added two new categories, Events and market interest activities (open) and events and market interest activities (closed)

  55. Don't blow it added to themed competitions now open

  56. Stopping it in its tracks competition now open.

  57. Addition of Behavioural Analytics Scoping Workshop document

  58. Submission service reopened.

  59. Submission service has reopened for themed competitions

  60. There has been an update to the submissions service for information.

  61. Submission service status update

  62. Word version of proposal submission form is available so you can draft a proposal now.

  63. Our submission service is temporarily closed due to a technical issue. We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

  64. Added Accelerator themed competition: Autonomous last mile resupply

  65. Moved Revolutionise competition to past competitions.

  66. Adding Enduring Challenge competition which is now open for submissions

  67. First published.