UKDI Themed Competitions

Rapid Transfusion Diagnostics

Supports United Kingdom medical teams developing point-of-care blood diagnostics for use in field operations.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

Rapid Transfusion Diagnostics is a UKDI competition run on behalf of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and Defence Medical Services (DMS), seeking point-of-care blood testing innovations to reduce the logistical burden of collecting, testing, and administering blood during deployed military operations. The central challenge is to develop a logistically compact device capable of testing for ABO blood group and/or specific bloodborne viruses at the point of care in field environments. The submission deadline is 12:00 midday BST on 2 June 2026; the competition notice explicitly states no extensions will be granted and late submissions risk rejection. A launch webinar was held on 19 March 2026.

The total funding pool is £3 million (excluding VAT) distributed across an expected four to six contracts. Individual award sizes typically range from £500,000 to £700,000, though UKDI reserves the right to fund outside these amounts. Expected feedback to applicants is 6 August 2026, with estimated contract start in mid-September 2026. Eligible applicants are UK-based organizations — academia, SMEs, large companies — and the standard UKDI requirement applies: international organizations must hold a UK Companies House registration and conduct project development activity in the UK. Sole traders are noted as ineligible per the structured eligibility record for this competition.

Proposals should address the specific operational context of deployed military blood transfusion logistics: weight, size, power requirements, and reliability in austere field conditions are all likely evaluation factors. Applicants are advised to review the full Competition Document and sample terms and conditions on GOV.UK for scoring criteria, page limits, and contractual obligations before submission. Contact for technical queries is accelerator@dstl.gov.uk or 01980 950000 option 3, weekday mornings.