Project Features
In this new environment, Canada’s military needs a fundamentally new approach to innovation that allows it to better tap into the extraordinary talent and ingenuity resident across the country. The Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security program, or IDEaS, will launch a number of coordinated new initiatives that will transform the way we generate solutions to complex problems.
IDEaS will establish research clusters to stimulate collaboration and the free flow of ideas that are so critical to innovation. These clusters will bring together academics, industry and other partners to form collaborative innovation networks. Areas for advanced research and development include surveillance, cyber tools for defence, space, alternative fuels, remotely piloted systems, data analytics, and counter-improvised explosive device solutions. A critical area for urgent research is the human dimension of our work, including treatments for mental health and operational stress injuries.
Competition is also an effective way to stimulate innovation. The Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security program includes a new commitment to “compete the idea” and turn to innovators in the private sector or academia to seek viable solutions. This will allow innovators to approach challenges creatively from their own unique perspectives.
IDEaS will introduce flexible new procurement tools that allow Defence to commit early in the development process to being the first customer for promising new ideas. This will create an environment where risk is shared more equally between Defence and its innovation partners. The ability to develop and test solutions throughout their development will allow Canadian industry to field test their products with the Canadian Armed Forces to ensure that new capabilities or approaches meet the needs of the military and give Canadian companies the opportunity to participate in global markets.
The Defence team will work more closely with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to align closely with Canada’s broader Inclusive Innovation Agenda, particularly as it relates to its objectives to grow companies and accelerate growth, encourage an entrepreneurial and creative society, leverage global scientific excellence, and establish world-leading research clusters.
IDEaS Objectives
- Establish research clusters critical to future defence needs
- Hold competitions for innovators to meet defence and security challenges
- Allow Defence to develop and test ideas and follow through with procurement
IDEaS Activities – Ready to Publish Externally
To meet these objectives, IDEaS is planning several new activities to help transform defence innovation in Canada, the first of which are described below. This website will be updated to capture the latest news as details are announced.
Competitive Projects
Competitive Projects will be used to solicit proposals from the innovation community on specific scientific challenges. It will require a substantial communication plan to regularly inform the S&T community to ensure potential proposers know of its existence, and also know how to access it. The process will be fairly straight forward as it will consist of submitting a proposal (using an existing template) through the IDEaS Portal.
- [Link to be added to PSPC/buyandsell]
Clusters and Innovation Networks
Creating clusters of innovators is an integrated effort of engaging a growing number of researchers, many of whom have not been part of the Defence and Security innovation continuum in the past. This initiative will create awareness of Defence and Security challenges and in turn will foster their interest and collaboration to support the adoption of innovative solutions to solve these research challenges.
Contests
Contests provide an innovative approach to transfer program delivery by engaging a community of eligible participants to find potential solutions to a specific challenge. The payment is made only when pre-determined eligibility criteria are met. Contests incentivize the creation of new innovation by larger pools of participants which may lead to the creation of an extended community of practice. An S&T challenge is issued when clear goals are identified. This includes defining the problem and prize duration, outlining solution prameters and development requirements, establishing submission deliverables and corresponding deadlines, any functionality requirements and the value of the prize.
Sandboxes
The creation of sandboxes (curated trials in a realistic setting) will allow innovators to demonstrate their technologies against DND’s or international partners’ challenges in order to assess their effectiveness and potentially accelerate their adoption as a new capability.
Innovation Assessment and Implementation
The creation of Innovation Assessment and Implementation processes allows the procurement of limited quantities of refined prototypes or initial release units for evaluation by end users and scientists in an operational environment to confirm its TRL (limited buys for the purposes of evaluating its TRL and effectiveness). The objectives are to assess its effectiveness and potential for adoption as a new capability.