B612, the Urban Air Mobility Plazza Accelerator

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  3 avril 2020

  Air Force small business program seeks technologies to help counter COVID-19

  by Sandra Erwin In response to the SBIR solicitation, a space startup is developing a geospatial intelligence-based tool that can help governments identify infected areas. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force Small Business Innovation Research office has posted a new solicitation that includes COVID-19 countermeasures as an area of interest. The March 30 Small Business Innovation Research solicitation, like most SBIR calls, is open to proposals on any topic that addresses a defense-focused need. But this is the first one that includes COVID-19 “defeat and mitigation related to Air Force operations and activities” as an area of interest. Proposals are due April 30. This SBIR is for “direct to Phase 2” contracts of up to $1 million over 27 months. Phase 1 awards are for early research work whereas Phase 2 are for technologies that are relevant to defense needs but also have commercialization potential. Some Air Force SBIR programs require matching funds from private investors. According to the March 30 solicitation, companies can compete for $1 million Air Force awards but private matching funds are not a requirement. The SBIR solicitation is an opportunity for startups in space and defense to adapt technologies for COVID-19 response, Shawn Usman, an astrophysicist with Rhea Space Activity, told SpaceNews. Usman said Rhea Space Activity has partnered with Illumina Consulting Group and Dynamic Graphics to offer a geospatial intelligence-based tool that can help governments identify infected areas much faster than is currently possible. “We can provide operational, real-time data analysis and alerting capabilities to federal, state, and military emergency operations centers,” he said. “Our solution will collect publicly available information, including social media and adware data, and correlate it with other data sets from public health organizations to create alerts detailing the emergence of COVID-19 hotspots.” Using open-source analytics and satellite collected geospatial information it would be possible to “readily confirm COVID-19 infected population areas, and will provide first responders with much more detailed, real time information to formulate their own reaction plans,” Usman said. https://spacenews.com/air-force-small-business-program-seeks-technologies-to-help-counter-covid-19/

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  27 novembre 2020

  Lancement de Blast, un programme dédié aux start-up de la défense et de l’aérospatial

  November 26, 2020 Imaginé par l'Onera, Polytechnique, la SATT Saclay et l'accélérateur Starburst, ce programme ambitionne d'accompagner 20 start-up par an. Blast. Explosion, en anglais. C'est aussi l'acronyme de « Boost and Leverage Aerospace and defence Technologies », le nom d'un nouveau programme français d'accélération, spécifiquement destiné aux start-up de l'aéronautique, du spatial et de la défense dont les idées, innovations et briques technologiques intéressent ces industries de souveraineté. À lire aussi :L'armée française sécurise une pépite de la tech convoitée par la CIA À l'origine de cette initiative, un constat en forme de paradoxe. La France ne manque ni d'ingénieurs, ni de laboratoires, ni d'universités, ni de centres de recherche au meilleur niveau mondial, et pourtant cette force de frappe peine à engendrer des start-up en grand nombre. De même, la France dispose d'une industrie aéronautique, spatiale et militaire de classe mondiale mais qui n'a pas toujours la ligne directe pour se connecter au monde des start-up. Et il n'existe pas de programme spécifique pour faire grandir les jeunes pousses du «deep-tech», les innovations de rupture utilisant des technologies avancées, dans ces trois domaines. Lire à partir de la source.... https://thereadersplanet.fr/startup-news/166937/lancement-de-blast-un-programme-dedie-aux-start-up-de-la-defense-et-de-laerospatial/

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  6 avril 2021

  Commercial Interest Grows in Defense Innovation Unit

  The Defense Innovation Unit received nearly 1,000 proposals in response to its solicitations last year, another sign that the Pentagon's outreach to commercial industry is bearing fruit. DIU was launched in 2015 by then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to bridge the gap between the military and the nation's tech hubs. It is headquartered in Mountain View, California, in Silicon Valley, with additional outposts in Austin, Texas, Boston and the Pentagon. “DIU's mission to strengthen U.S. national security by increasing the military's adoption of commercial technology and to grow the national security innovation base is critical not only to maintaining a strategic advantage over our adversaries but also to the strength of our economy,” the organization said in its recently released 2020 annual report. Over the past five years, the unit has leveraged more than $11 billion in private investment, the document noted. “The startups, established companies, venture capital firms, investors and traditional defense contractors that DIU works with to deliver the best commercial technology to the Department of Defense are ... fundamental sources of dual-use technologies,” it said. In 2020, DIU initiated 23 new projects, a 35 percent year-over-year increase. It received a total of 944 commercial proposals and increased the average number of proposals per solicitation by 52 percent compared with 2019. Fifty-six other transaction agreements for prototyping were awarded to companies, the majority of which were small businesses or nontraditional firms. A total of $108 million in prototype funding was obligated. Between June 2016 and December 2020, DIU facilitated more than $640 million in prototype funding, according to the report. Notably, the unit in 2020 facilitated the transition of 11 successful commercial prototypes to its Defense Department partners for large-volume procurement, an increase of 22 percent over the previous year. About 43 percent of DIU's projects to date have yielded at least one prototype that has transitioned to production, according to the report. Fifty-one ongoing projects have prototypes that will be eligible for transition to production if successfully completed. “What began in 2015 as an experiment to lead Department of Defense outreach to commercial innovators has become a gateway for business between leading-edge companies and the U.S. military,” the report said. DIU's main technology focus areas have been artificial intelligence, autonomy, cyber, human systems and space. In October, it added advanced energy and materials to its portfolio. “We look forward to providing even more high-impact solutions that will bolster our military's strategic, operational and tactical advantage,” the organization said.