As the name suggests, the aim is to encourage and find “innovative wearable technologies that focus on biocompatible materials that access information present within an individual’s bodily fluids”.
Body fluids
Up to £750k of funding will be available, via the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), which is part of the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
The aim is to move beyond the measurement of physical parameters, such as heart rate, and instead measure data present in the individual’s body fluids, such as blood, sweat, tears, saliva and tissue fluids.
The organisation will be seeking evidence that the new technologies have the potential to measure and protect the health and wellbeing of future Defence and Security staff.
Challenges
Submitted proposals can choose one of three challenge areas for such wearable technologies.
The first, Challenge 1, addresses performance of sensor capabilities over periods of hours and potentially days depending on the target biomarker and scenario of use.
Challenge 2 is about the ability to measure several types of analyte (small molecules to larger protein targets) in a continuous format.
Finally, Challenge 3 involves the applicability of accessible bodily fluids to measurement of particular biomolecules, i.e. studies to show presence of key biomarkers, with relevance to associated pathology. For example, studies that demonstrate that a particular accessible fluid (e.g. sweat, saliva, tear fluid, interstitial fluid) is a relevant matrix for a particular biomarker associated with a chosen stressor of interest.
The deadline to submit a proposal is midday 25 August 2022, and you can read the full competition document, and submit a proposal, via this link.
