Full Challenge

A Contest to Develop Integrated Utilities Management Systems

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) must be ready to deploy on short notice, in any climate and for prolonged periods. The CAF presently relies on Relocatable Temporary Camps (RTCs) for its deployments that sustain personnel through demanding operational and environmental conditions.

The Department of National Defence’s (DND) Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program is calling innovators on to propose and develop solutions that provide integrated energy, water and waste management systems for the CAF’s RTCs deployed in national and international operations.

The “Pop up City” Contest is a multi-phased contest for innovators to propose and develop reliable, energy efficient, integrated and scalable energy, water and waste management systems for RTCs. Contests are a competitive means of finding innovative solutions and awarding prizes to the best solutions derived from the innovation community. Specifically, this Contest is seeking solutions designed to manage the energy, water and waste needs of a 150 to 1,500-person RTC, operating in a temperate climate zone.

To standardize the required performance capacity for system designs, contestants will be supplied with per capita data for energy and water consumption, and waste production, along with representative annual climate data, including wind and solar patterns. Contestants will be asked to provide scalable solutions that can supply the requirements of RTCs over a 12-month period in this climate zone. System designs which would also allow for the occasional deployment to extreme hot and/or frigid climatic zones are strongly encouraged.

Contest Challenge Objectives

The objectives of the Pop up City Contest are to:

1. Stimulate the innovation and development of solutions that significantly reduce RTC fuel and water inputs, and waste outputs, while maintaining specified performance capacities.
2. Build on Canadian strengths to develop solutions that achieve a reduction of current fuel and water input and waste output by the following specific targets:
   1. at least a 33% reduction in the fuel supplied to the RTCs;
   2. at least a 33% reduction of the current potable water supplied to the RTCs; and
   3. at least a 33% reduction in the solid and liquid waste requiring disposal from the RTCs.

Desired Outcomes and Considerations

Inefficiencies in current practices lead to a higher requirement for fuel and water resupply and waste removal. This has the knock-on effect of greatly increasing the transport logistics during operations. DND/CAF believe that significant gains in the efficiencies of RTC utilities systems would have an overall beneficial impact on deployed operations. In addition to making better use of known technologies, this may be achieved both by the introduction of innovative technologies, and by combining these technologies into a single, integrated system for RTC utilities. Scalable and transportable solutions are needed that minimize purchasing requirements, transportation costs and logistical demands. The Pop up City Contest is being issued to the Canadian innovation community to address this.

Desired Outcomes

Successful proposals can incorporate existing technologies, modifications, or new innovations that can be developed to testable integrated solutions at Solution Readiness Level (SRL) 6 by the end of the Contest (See Annex A for SRL definitions). Integrated solutions for the management of energy, waste and water for RTCs are expected to deliver the following desired outcomes:

1. designed to supply and manage given per capita requirements for energy and water consumption, and waste generation (data provided in Table 1 below);
2. designed to minimize RTC fuel and water input and waste output;
3. designed with secure centralized control, capable at a minimum of monitoring energy and water consumption;
4. scalable for RTCs accommodating from 150 to 1,500 persons;
5. designed for continuous operation over a 12-month period using the sample climate data provided;
6. transportable in standard 20-foot (6.1 m) intermodal containers; and
7. designed for durability and high reliability, both in transport and in operation. A plan for maintenance and replacement of hardware/software components must be included.

Contestants should note that reducing per capita consumption, for example by improving accommodation insulation or by changing personnel behaviours, while important, is outside the scope of the Contest.

Full program guide

How it works

The Contest consists of four competitive rounds that contestants will pass through for a chance to win a grand prize of $2.0 million. Each round is designed to progress towards the development of a functioning and testable prototype integrated solution, capable of delivering the desired outcomes of the Contest.

Prizes will be awarded in each Round of the Contest. Awards for Rounds 1, 2, and 4 will be in the form of a grant. In Round 3, finalists will receive funding in the form of a contribution agreement.

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Who is eligible?

To be eligible contestants must be a legal entity duly incorporated and validly existing in Canada, including:

1. Canadian post-secondary institutions;
2. Incorporated Canadian not-for-profit organizations or associations;
3. Provincial/territorial, municipal government organizations;
4. Incorporated Canadian for-profit companies, organizations or associations;
5. Any group, cluster or consortium composed of eligible recipients.

Federal government departments/agencies and federal and provincial Crown Corporations and their employees are not eligible for participation in this Contest.

The IDEaS Program will request a contestant to demonstrate its eligibility. Contestants who fail to demonstrate eligibility will not be considered in the From the Ground Up Contest

Conditions of eligibility

What is the deadline to apply?

The Contest is now closed to new applications.

Reference documents

Program Guide
Application Form [PDF, 59KB]
Declaration Form [PDF, 150KB]
Contest Q’s & A’s

For the purposes of this Contest, temperature, precipitation, daylight and wind data obtained for Brandon, Manitoba, should be used for all design considerations and calculations.

Climate data
Wind data
Daylight data
Electrical load profile data