Alchemy – Supporting DSTF to find game changing S&T for Defence.
TP Group led a consortium of six companies known as Alchemy (TP Group, RAND Europe, Treehouse, School of International Futures, Arke Ltd and Sagentia Innovation), that identified and developed game changing science and technology (S&T) for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and its Defence S&T Futures programme.
Background and requirement
Under ASTRID 301, TP Group was selected as the lead industry supplier to identify and develop game changing S&T for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and its Defence S&T Futures programme. This requires identifying and investigating emerging S&T with the aim to maintain operational advantage for future UK Defence.
As lead of the Alchemy team, TP Group manages a pipeline which aims to:
- Find high-quality S&T Signals from the latest academic literature, patents and non-English sources;
- Develop defence concepts from signals via a creative workshop approach (including input from domain SMEs and Military Advisors); and
- Progressively mature each concept by evaluating the potential benefits to Defence, and the S&T development pathway to realise these benefits.
In totality, TP Group is seeking to develop 15 game changing beyond-GAN Defence Concepts to inform future investment decisions and influence how future Defence operates.
There has been a shift in Defence to extrapolate from Current Generation (CG) capability gaps/opportunities to develop Beyond Generation After Next (BGAN) capabilities with a broad S&T focus. Developing and maturing BGAN Concepts involves assessing CG, road-mapping complex trends and relationships within and across scientific fields/sectors and carrying out horizon scanning across a diverse range of sources to identify both S&T and non-S&T Signals relevant to Defence. Armed with this knowledge, pertinent Signals can be identified and worked up alongside Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and Military Advisors (MAs) to provide S&T knowledge as well as a defence lens to ensure that the concept will deliver enhanced or new capability to the future End User. This is packaged up in an in-depth assessment plan detailing to the customer the initial investment to research and test hypotheses of the concept’s underpinning S&T principles.
Approach
TP Group led the project, providing technical leadership, project management, concept creation, and oversight of contract delivery. TP Group’s Technical Lead provided clear direction, guidance, and support to the whole consortium, ensuring a successful project was delivered as well as becoming a trusted partner to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and its Defence S&T Futures programme. TP Group’s Technical Lead also facilitated Learning from Experience (LfE) sessions throughout the contract, ensuring improvements were identified and implemented to maintain an agile, flexible, and streamlined pipeline. This was a key priority for the customer, to ensure the pipeline continued to deliver at pace.
TP Group delivered a project management office (PMO) function for this contract, including scheduling, risk management, stakeholder engagement and management, contract management and administrative support to meetings, as well as the development of a PowerBI dashboard. The PowerBI dashboard proved popular with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and its Defence S&T Futures programme as it provided key insights into the Alchemy pipeline, allowing us to make effective decisions to improve performance.
TP Group supported Arke and Sagentia Innovation to develop and mature concepts that will deliver enhanced or new capability to the future End User. Concept Guardians took ownership of concepts, reviewed the underpinning S&T with Sagentia Innovation scientists, developed military use cases with support from MAs and Arke Defence Analysts, and investigated if the concepts were familiar to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. Our Concept Guardians worked across a number of S&T taxonomy areas (e.g. biomedical science, engineering, psychology etc.) to mature the concepts, demonstrating their flexibility to adapt to new ideas on a regular drumbeat, as well as ability to coordinate a number of (sometimes conflicting) inputs from stakeholders in a short timeframe.
Outcome
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and its Defence S&T Futures programme welcomed the collaborative working between the teams, and the proactive identification and implementation of lessons learnt during the process. The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and its Defence S&T Futures programme recognised how challenging finding new S&T unfamiliar to Defence is and praised the Alchemy team for persevering to find concepts that are game-changing for Defence.