Digital Catapult has announced the selection of five UK startups to participate in its Defence Testbed Accelerator, an initiative designed to strengthen industrial supply chain resilience and enhance the use of deep technology within the defence sector.
The accelerator is part of the Made Smarter | Digital Supply Chain Hub and operates in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence (MoD), UK defence manufacturers, and UK-based small businesses.
The programme, supported by the National Composites Centre (NCC) and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), aims to help the MoD and its partners securely manage and share manufacturing design data.
The five selected startups, CamyPro, Dataline Labs, Quaisr, TECHNIA and Vistory Group, will work on two distinct challenges.
Dataline Labs, CamyPro, and TECHNIA have been tasked with addressing the Technical Data Packs-Digital Inventory Connectors challenge.
Their focus will be on developing software solutions that can securely extract and standardise metadata from Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems.
Meanwhile, Vistory Group and Quaisr will work on the Federated Digital Inventory challenge, aiming to establish a unified platform for viewing and sharing technical data throughout the supply chain.
Both challenges are intended to strengthen industrial supply chain resilience and continue the work of Digital Catapult in this area.
The Digital Supply Chain Hub Defence Testbed Accelerator aims to address secure data sharing issues to support additive manufacturing in the UK’s defence supply chain and help participating companies expand their operations.
So far, Digital Catapult has delivered 37 Digital Supply Chain Hub projects and engaged with 135 manufacturing and technology small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a 44% year-on-year increase.
Technology companies involved in the programme have secured over £6m in funding since participating.
Digital Catapult industrial supply chains head Annie Iakovaki said: “One area of defence innovation that requires immediate attention is the supply chain, responsible for the delivery of assets, information and people that underpin the success of the UK defence sector.
“Interventions like this accelerator programme demonstrate the value of convening capabilities across the sector, and bridging the gap between industry, startups and government to better solve some of the most pressing challenges in the space, and to unlock new opportunities that maintain the UK’s position as a leading player in defence innovation and success.”
