Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program launches Innovation Networks

On May 28, 2018, the Department of National Defence launched Innovation Networks, the second element under the IDEaS program. Through this program element, academics, industry and other partners are encouraged to come together to form collaborative Innovation Networks. Areas for support of advanced research and development will vary over time depending on Canada’s current and future defence and security innovation challenges.

May 28, 2018 – Ottawa, Ontario – National Defence/Canadian Armed Forces

On May 28, 2018, the Department of National Defence launched Innovation Networks, the second element under the IDEaS program. Through this program element, academics, industry and other partners are encouraged to come together to form collaborative Innovation Networks. Areas for support of advanced research and development will vary over time depending on Canada’s current and future defence and security innovation challenges.

Recognizing that successful and sustainable research networks take time to build, the first call for proposals under Innovation Networks will support the creation of smaller networks, or micro-nets, that perform research on one or more aspects of an innovation challenge. Future calls for proposals will encourage the merging of successful micro-nets (and where appropriate other networks/participants) to form larger sustainable national Innovation Networks dedicated to further research on a particular innovation challenge.

This call is open exclusively to multidisciplinary teams of researchers. Micro-nets must be led by an investigator whose primary affiliation is a Canadian university, and that university must administer the funding provided by IDEaS on behalf of the micro-net. Investigators must have a primary affiliation from at least three separate institutions and/or organizations. Eligible institutions or organizations are:

• Canadian universities and educational institutions chartered in Canada;
• Incorporated Canadian for-profit organizations;
• Incorporated Canadian not-for-profit organizations;
• Provincial/territorial and municipal government organizations; and
• International universities and educational institutions.

Each micro-net can be composed of investigators from any combination of institutions and organizations from the list above, however, at least one Canadian university must be included. For example, micro-net members from two universities and one for-profit organization would be deemed eligible.

First call for proposals for Innovation Networks: Advanced materials for defence and security

Under the first call, winning bidders will develop and/or study defence and security applications, with a focus on emerging and advanced materials including advanced manufacturing methods. Specifically, a focus on two priority areas has been identified:

Detection avoidance: signature management for personnel and platforms

Advanced materials which enable personnel and military platforms (air, land, and naval) to be hidden or concealed in their respective background of operation, are of great interest. IDEaS will establish micro-nets to explore signature management for advanced and emerging materials that can be used for wide-bandwidths, function across multiple discrete bands of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum simultaneously, or can be adaptable for different bands of the EM spectrum.

Physical protection: personnel and platform protection against kinetic and non-kinetic threats

With the increasing lethality of both kinetic (e.g. ballistics, energetic materials, and blasts) and non-kinetic (e.g. electromagnetic, and directed energy) threats, the weight and bulk of armour to both CAF personnel and platforms have increased. IDEaS will set-up micro-nets to explore emerging and existing advanced materials with superior mechanical properties to evaluate considerable weight savings and increase protection performance by comparing them to their traditional counter-parts. Other areas of interest include improved flexibility, durability, and thermal and moisture management.

Areas of research and development and/or study may include, but are not limited to: metamaterials, nanomaterials, reactive materials, multifunctional materials, adaptive materials, auxetic materials, advanced composites, advanced coatings, printed electronics/periodic elements, novel applications of existing advanced materials, and advanced manufacturing methods.

The objectives of this call for proposals are to:

• Encourage, enhance, sustain and support interdisciplinary research collaboration between academia, the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, and other levels of government, to build a critical mass of expertise and knowledge applicable to the defence and security of Canada;
• Support basic and applied research, analysis, technology development and knowledge transfer leading to innovative solutions to key innovation challenges for defence and security identified by DND and/or its safety and security partners; and
• Enable researchers from varied disciplines and areas of expertise to work together to demonstrate an added value that each researcher, if funded individually, would not be able to reach alone.

Associated Links

Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program
Innovation Network Application Guide
National Defence Science and Technology