DASA Themed Competitions

DASA Themed Competition — Future-proofing Biosecurity: Microbial Forensic Capability

Supports DASA Themed Competition Future proofing Biosecurity Microbial Forensic Capability for practical innovation and measurable results.

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) launched a themed competition titled "Future-proofing Biosecurity by Strengthening the UK's Microbial Forensic Capability" on behalf of Dstl, offering up to £1 million (excluding VAT) for innovations that advance the United Kingdom's ability to conduct microbial forensic attribution and analysis. Microbial forensics — the identification and characterisation of biological agents and their origins — is a critical component of UK biosecurity and biosurveillance strategy.

The competition explicitly targets technologies operating at low to medium Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), meaning early-stage feasibility and proof-of-concept work is within scope. All funded projects must be completed by 31 December 2026, placing a hard constraint on project duration of approximately 18 months or less from the competition launch date. Per-award amounts were not published in the announcement; the total pool is £1 million to be divided across successful proposals. Eligible applicants include SMEs, large companies, universities, and research organisations; submissions are made via the DASA Online Submission Service under the standard Innovation Standard Contract vehicle.

The competition is run under the UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) framework, with DASA acting as the commissioning body and Dstl as the ultimate customer. Applicants should review the GOV.UK competition page for the full competition document and evaluation criteria. Biosecurity, synthetic biology, genomics, and related analytical science organisations with solutions applicable to attribution of biological threats are best positioned to compete. The firm 31 December 2026 end date means project scoping and work planning at proposal stage is critical.