News story

CDE Marketplace September 2016

The Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) showcased some of the best research ideas it’s funded at a Marketplace event in London on 6 September 2016.

The Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE), part of MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), held a Marketplace event in London on 6 September 2016.

The aim of the Marketplace is to showcase innovations from our funding competitions to potential investors, from the defence market and wider, to increase the likelihood of exploitation.

This Marketplace featured winners of our autonomy and big data competition with the UK Defence Solutions Centre, plus additional successful projects from other CDE funding competitions.

This high profile event was opened by Harriett Baldwin MP, the Minister for Defence Procurement.

The day included keynote presentations, 5-minute pitch sessions from our exhibitors to give you a taster of what they’ve done, and exhibition areas to showcase innovative projects, network and build new relationships.

The companies who exhibited for CDE are listed below, along with the innovative project title and link to a case study.

CDE enduring and themed competitions

Company Project
Fluid Mechanics Ltd (SME) Reducing power and improving safety for cooling applications
University of Glasgow (academia) Improving efficiency and stability of diamond semiconductors
Crypta Labs (SME) Quantum random number generator microchip for secure communications
Newcastle University (academia) Battlefield cell-based therapy
RJD Technology Ltd (SME) Dynamic cyber situational awareness tool

Autonomy and big data for defence competition

Company Project
Atlas Elektronik Ltd (large) Analysing data for autonomous situational awareness
QinetiQ (large) Extracting visual navigation data from open source imagery
VECtis Environmental Consulting Team LLP (SME) Position location through environmental recognition
Polaris Consulting Ltd (SME) Mimicking ants to develop the capability of autonomous vehicles
Polaris Consulting Ltd (SME) Maritime autonomous navigation in GPS-limited environments
Cubica Technology Ltd (SME) Automatic verification and fusion of open-source intelligence
Stormcharge Ltd (SME) Command and control of autonomous vehicles in changing environments
Oxbotica Ltd (SME) Experience-based localisation
HORIBA MIRA (large) Unmanned ground vehicle localisation without GNSS
Conekt (large) Dynamic generation of 3D maps using descending cameras
Createc (SME) Live maps for unmanned air systems
Leonardo (large) Linguistic summary of sensor data to reduce data deluge
Swarm Systems Ltd (SME) A synthetic environment for autonomous systems
CountingLab Ltd (SME) Trustworthiness of information from big data sets
Autonomous Devices Ltd (SME) Real-time interactive query language
BMT Defence Services (SME) Learning to trust the crowd
Massive Analytic Ltd (SME) Streamlining decision making in threatening situations
SimCentric Ltd (SME) Visual search and linkage tool
Mass Consultants Ltd (SME) Timeline visualisation for provenance-based big data sensemaking
University of Sheffield (academia) Hypothesis generation and visualisation from big data
University of Sheffield (academia) Tools for data compression
Polaris Consulting Ltd (SME) Improving intelligence data processing and enhancing situational awareness
Exa Informatics (SME) Knowledge-based autonomous big data validation
Roke Manor Research Ltd (large) Reducing the workload of an intelligence analyst

We’ve held 2 similar events in the last year and 100% of our exhibitors said that they found the events useful and made new connections and attendees found out about useful capabilities from innovative SMEs and academia that fitted with their programmes. The events have attracted over 100 potential investors, and also press interest for exhibitors.

About CDE

CDE funds novel, high-risk, high-potential-benefit research. We work with the broadest possible range of science and technology providers, including academia and small companies, to develop cost-effective capabilities for UK armed forces and national security.

CDE is part of Dstl.

Centre for Defence Enterprise

Building R103
Fermi Avenue
Harwell Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX11 0QX

Email [email protected]

Telephone +44 (0)30 67704236

Alternative number +44 (0)30 67704237

Please email for the quickest response.

Updates to this page

Published 10 August 2016
Last updated 9 September 2016 + show all updates
  1. Pitch presentation slides are now available.

  2. First published.