News 

Urban Futures supports innovating business competition

Date: 01 Dec 2006

On 30^th November 2006, the Defence Diversification Agency (DDA), in conjunction with defence media and event specialists, The Shephard Group, organised the Defence Technology Exchange Innovation Awards. These awards were designed to recognise and celebrate the achievements of UK innovators in transferring technologies from defence into industry and vice versa. The Awards were held for the first time this year.

The DDA is part of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and was set up in 1999. It has unique access to the MOD's substantial research and development resources (annual funding £2.7bn) - a treasure trove of technological expertise which it uses to bring huge benefits to a wide range of companies throughout the UK. The organisation also helps companies find their way into the MOD to commercialise their own products and sell to the defence sector, as well as offering businesses valuable opportunities for networking.

Through the ERDF funded Innovation for Business project, Urban Futures have enabled the DDA to provide free support to North London’s Innovative small businesses helping them to change and improve. The support is spearheaded by Ian Lawson, the DDA’s regional manager for London who is based at the Business Innovation Centre in Enfield and funded primarily through the Innovation for Business project.  

At a glittering ceremony in the National Science Museum in London, Scottish firm Wireless Fibre Systems Ltd scooped the major prize, The Defence Technology Exchange Innovation Awards 2006 Overall Winner award for developing a technology for high speed communications that works both underwater and through the air-water interface. The judges thought that this company should receive the overall award because their technology offers the potential for such a large step increase in military capability.

London's EM Digital was awarded The Consensus Business Group Award for Best Transfer Innovation - Civil to Defence for their electromagnetic actuators and Farnborough's QinetiQ was awarded the Aerospace Wales Award for Best Transfer Innovation - Defence to Civil for their Tarsier radar.

Damien McDonnell, OBE, Chief Executive of the DDA "We were absolutely delighted with the response from companies to these awards". He continues, "The UK has always been at the forefront of invention notably from within home-grown defence research. These inventions have ensured superior capability for the armed forces. But what has been lacking is the wide use of these new discoveries to stimulate entrepreneurship and wealth creation in our economy. There are many incidences of UK defence technologies being transferred successfully into different market sectors, sometimes generating multi billion pound global markets, and some of our winners will be these companies of the future."

The judges were looking for a company's vision in seeing new market opportunities in a different sector, a determination to surmount the difficult hurdles that inevitably appeared, and the potential value of the technology in the new arena.

“The Defence Technology Exchange 2006 event is designed to encourage more entrepreneurs and ensure that inventions and technologies from defence, industry and academia are developed for mutual benefit and wealth creation within the UK economy" continues McDonnell. “The Technology Exchange Awards 2006, and the congress event, was a unique opportunity for defence and civil industry to examine the best practice in transferring ideas and technologies into world class products and services for defence procurement and businesses will earn recognition for their achievements.”

For more information on the DDA visit www.dda.gov.uk

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