The Civil Contingencies Secretariat is working on a database and data visualisation project to support a national security capability mapping programme.
It is making the effort as part of the Resilience Capabilities Programme, which is aimed at providing an effective response to any civil emergencies that may arise.
The secretariat, which is part of the Cabinet Office, is aiming to replace an existing process that relies on participants manually filling in interactive PDF documents and data visualisations.
It has said this is time consuming and subject to human error, and is now looking for a specialist in data analytical software to automate the mapping process and generate interactive data visualisations.
It wants users to be able to input the data easily and store it in an environment hosted by the Cabinet Office. While the main users would be a team within the department it could also be used by other Whitehall officials.
The secretariat has already carried out a discovery phase for the project and has a general idea of software requirements, mock visualisation and technical options. But its procurement notice says it wants to understand the “art of the possible”.
Visualisations and modelling
Among the requirements for any solution is that it can automatically generate data visualisations, enable automated data modelling, provide secure storage and enable remote access to the data.
The Resilience Capabilities Programme was developed to provide an understanding of what capabilities are needed to deal with the consequences of emergencies, both natural and man-made. It also involves co-ordinating cross-government efforts to build the capabilities.
Each capability is the responsibility of a lead Government department, with the secretariat providing the overall management.
Image by Phil Wolf, CC BY 2.0 through flickr
