The teams behind the development of two technologies for military use have won £280,000 in grants to support their repurposing to other public services.
The funds will support the further development of a predictive test for sepsis from Presymptom Health and a sensor to identify lase threats from Sentinel Phototonics.
The money has come from the Knowledge Assets Grant Fund run by the Department for Business, Engergy and Industrial strategy, and have been facilitated by Ploughshare – a company owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) – and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
The fund is aimed at supporting the repurposing, commercialisation or expanded use of public sector knowledge assets.
Presympton Health will receive up to £100,000 for research and development of machine learning software to be used in analysing thousands of blood samples in Dstl’s biobank. This was first developed for the MoD for use on the military frontline.
Sentinel Photonics has won £180,000 to explore new possible uses for its laser detection technology, initially developed for military use. It cited a possible example of helping to assess threats when lasers are shone at commercial aircraft such as air ambulances or at sporting events.
Further advances
David English, chief finance officer at Dstl, said: “We’re delighted that these science and technology innovations developed by Dstl will be further advanced.
“These two examples are indicative of Dstl’s commitment to protect lives through superior technology and innovation, while also supporting UK industry.”
