Point of care diagnostics at the front line- funding competition

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is seeking proposals for innovative ‘Point of Care’ (PoC) diagnostics technologies that provide information to enable clinicians and medical professionals to provide earlier diagnosis and ultimately improve the treatment and long-term health outcomes of individuals exposed to chemical and biological hazards.

Technologies that enable rapid diagnosis of individuals exposed to biological or chemical agents are currently limited. They are time-consuming, resource intensive, provide a limited identification capability and frequently rely on reach back to laboratory facilities to achieve a high confidence output. Development of novel, enhanced PoC diagnostic devices that can be used rapidly, as close to the patient as possible, and potentially in austere locations represent an attractive solution to this problem.

Total funding of up to £500k is available for this phase to fund multiple proposals at a range of Technology Readiness Levels (up to TRL 6). Additional funding for further phases of work to develop lower TRL technologies towards a higher TRL is potentially available. Full details are available in the competition document.

The competition closes at midday (BST) on 26 September 2019 .

Queries should be sent to:  accelerator@dstl.gov.uk