Institutions of Innovation: Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
'Institutions of Innovation' is a series of monthly interviews with the institutions driving the UK’s innovation policy.
Each contribution gradually pieces together the UK's innovation landscape; setting out the key actors, what they do, where they sit and how industry can engage, including through techUK.
This month's insight focuses on the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
Further information about Dstl's work can be found on their website here.
These responses have been provided by Dr Paul Hollinshead, Chief Executive Officer, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)
I see Dstl is providing expertise and delivering cutting-edge science and technology for the benefit of the nation and allies. What does this mean in practice?
It means using the UK’s investment in generating and building Defence and Security science and technology expertise, to keep the country and our people safe, and to generate economic growth and prosperity for the UK. We are around 5000 people – mainly highly technical specialists in science, technology and engineering. We cover 23 specialist science and technology capability areas on behalf of defence and security – ranging from artificial intelligence, through to weapons, future sensing, advanced materials, robotics and much more.
We also are home to the nation’s sovereign counter-chemical and biological threats capability and have several world leading facilities on our sites.
Every bit of equipment the armed forces use will in some way be linked to the MOD’s science and technology research programme – whether that be major projects like the Global Combat Air Platform, integration of technologies, or cyber defences to name a few. Some of these technologies can take over a decade to mature, others can be generated and fielded within weeks.
Likewise, major strategic decisions and policy across both Defence and Security all benefit from Dstl evidence and advice, built on the government’s investment in defence and security-related science and technology. Dstl has the understanding of technology, but, critically, understands the needs and requirements of the user communities in the armed forces, police and across Government – making us a crucial bridge between innovators in industry and academia, the military, Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) and wider Government, and thus helping to find the right science and technology solutions for their priority problems. We are about protecting the nation now and in the future. We see our partners in industry, wider Government, international allies and academia as critical to achieving that goal.
What kind of relationship does Dstl have with its closest institutional neighbours in this area?
Dstl has three main kinds of partners – all which are critical to delivering work that keeps the nation safe and prosperous.
We have our mission partners – such as the armed forces, the Police and other government departments. We have our delivery partners – these are in industry and academia. These range from big defence primes such as BAE Systems, QinetiQ, and mid-tier organisations like Thales, Atlas Elektronik, to many small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) – including start-ups and spinouts.
We also have close links with universities and research organisations across the UK, including other public sector research organisations like UKRI, the UK Health Security Agency, and Innovate UK.
Finally, we have our international partners with whom we conduct international research collaboration at a Government-to-Government level. Key partnerships are NATO, the US, AUKUS, and the Five Eyes Intelligence Community (US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand.)
Collaboration is central to successful research. We have more than 2,000 delivery partners in our supply chain and 30% of our research spend is with SMEs. We work extremely closely with them. These partners deliver 50% of our work.
More broadly, how does Dstl work with external stakeholders, including organisations across the UK, to drive innovation in this area?
One of the most successful ways of driving innovation across the UK has been through centres of excellence and supporting collaboration within specialist communities.
This year we set up the Defence Materials Centre of Excellence (DMEx) which brings together more than 20 of the leading research organisations in advanced materials in the UK. This is not only driving innovation through collaboration but it is maintaining and growing UK SQEP (suitably qualified and experienced persons). We’ve done similar things with the Electromagnetic Environment Hub to form a consortium of several leading universities. And in Newcastle, we have AI and Data Science specialists working in The Catalyst, recognising the industrial and academia expertise in these fields in that region. We are also collaborating with the Catapults and putting money into manufacturing facilities.
Across many of our biggest challenges this ‘Team’ approach is providing great results – such as the DragonFire Laser Directed Energy weapon demonstrator , developed between Dstl, MBDA, QinetiQ and Leonardo; and the next generation air platform protection system developed by Team Pellonia made up of Dstl, Thales and Leonardo.
How can techUK’s 1000+ industry members best engage with Dstl?
The first place to start is to join our dynamic purchasing platform – R-Cloud. On R-Cloud you can register against your areas of expertise and skills and can be informed of opportunities and bid for the work against these areas.
MOD, including Dstl, have a new commercial vehicle for our contracting known as Category Management. There is a single Science and Technology (S&T) category for MOD. This aims to be more agile and inclusive for small and medium-sized enterprises. Through R-Cloud we are looking to develop communities of interest and to look beyond single contracts to see what the future will look like. Dstl’s research programme typically does not look to buy products or finished solutions. We are looking at concepts and technology demonstrators, and are often running join competitions or projects with Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) and through the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA). Find more details about working with us on our website.
Can you name any examples of how Dstl has worked with techUK in the past? If so, what have you enjoyed, valued, or learned during the process?
We worked with techUK when we launched MOD’s current research portfolio back in 2021 and again in 2022. This really helped us connect with a diverse range of suppliers – many whom we hadn’t worked with before.
We’ve taken part in dial-ins and have really enjoyed having a two-way conversation – helping the supply base to understand MOD’s position, our requirements and opportunities. We also really value feedback from our delivery partners about the relationship and interactions we have. We also meet with many techUK members at tradeshows such as DSEI.
What is Dstl’s long-term vision for the UK’s innovation landscape? Are there any areas in which working with industry will be particularly crucial?
Our long-term vision is that of MOD, and ultimately that of the Government. This is set out in Invest 2035: the UK’s modern industrial strategy, of which Defence is one of the eight growth-driving sectors. At Dstl we see the landscape moving more to a dynamic ecosystem where the relationships between Government, industry and academia are more of a partnership, rather than a purely transactional arrangement. We need to invest strategically and more smartly in skills, facilities, and resources. That means greater transparency on all sides – and enduring commitments across sectors to sustain critical Science & Technology capabilities.
The UK is world leading in many areas such as AI, Quantum, Autonomous Systems, Advanced Materials and Engineering Biology to name a few. But if we are going to outcompete and take advantage of our skills and expertise in these areas then we need to work together to fully exploit and capitalise on our strong research base with the user community – and that is through greater technology demonstration and experimentation.
Finally, what is Dstl’s main priority over the next 12 months?
Dstl recognises that in these challenging times we need to adapt to ensure that we can deliver mission success through science and technology advantage. We launched a new strategy last year ensuring that we are delivering greater impact at pace and focussing on our stakeholders’ most important challenges. We also renewed our delivery principles – one of which is that we only do the science in-house that is necessary for Government to do.
This year we are working very hard and at pace to ensure we are getting closer to MOD to support strategy development, prioritisation, decision making and force development and acquisition. We are also getting closer to industry, Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) – MOD’s procurement arm – and the armed forces to ensure we pull through the science and technology solutions that they really need at greater pace. We will be increasing our collaboration with industry and academia to ensure you are better informed and can work with us dynamically.
We will be doing all we can to support the Government’s Growth agenda through investment in science and technology to enable operational advantage with faster exploitation through greater experimentation, technology demonstration, prototyping and support for test and evaluation. Our key areas of focus can be found on our website.
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Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.
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Rory Daniels
Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.