USPAE, DoD Launch $10 Million Defense Business Accelerator
October 3, 2023 | IPCEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
![](https://iconnect007.com/application/files/1416/9636/0016/USPAE_300.jpg)
In a major initiative to innovate how the Department of Defense (DoD) spurs commercial technology development, the U.S. Partnership for Assured Electronics (USPAE) and DoD launched a Defense Business Accelerator (DBX) to open doors for industrial base growth and stimulate private investment.
The experimental DBX program brings together the electronics industry expertise of USPAE with the DoD’s Manufacturing, Capability Expansion, and Investment Prioritization Directorate (MCEIP) to award funding through a process meant to accelerate solution development and improve the longevity of suppliers providing those solutions.
Together, USPAE and DoD will award up to $10 million in unique government funding for companies to commercialize technologies. The program will test whether such awards can achieve better results by focusing first on commercialization so that the agency can then leverage technology as dual-use. By focusing on commercialization up front, the DBX accelerator program is focused on improving product innovation that benefits both national security and the companies supporting it.
“This experiment is an important effort for the electronics technologies industry,” said Nathan J. Edwards, USPAE’s executive director. “If we prove it successful, we can radically change the funding process so that it encourages innovation and participation from a broader range of companies.”
DBX will conduct an open solicitation for proposals, describing the selection criteria for qualified electronics technologies and materials. Proposals will be reviewed and ranked.
Top finalists will be invited to the Defense TechConnect Innovation Summit & Expo conference in November to pitch a panel of industry, government, and investment experts. A review panel of subject matter experts will select the awardees who will each receive between $500,000 and $2 million.
The DBX process flips the current model for how DoD typically awards contracts, where funding usually focuses on a DoD solution with hopes that the solution will be commercialized so that DoD can buy it again and again. Unfortunately, the current model often does not work, necessitating DoD reinvestment.
To execute DBX, USPAE is partnering with ATI, which leads federal technology R&D collaborations, and specifically ATI’s TechConnect Division, a global research and innovation organization connecting funders and emerging technologies. In addition, USPAE is employing the company Fluent to provide a “fluency score” to quantitatively measure the success of this new way for the DoD to advance technologies.
"We have witnessed firsthand in the private sector how commercialization programs leveraging crowd-sourced, non-traditional technologies have significantly expedited their development while enhancing the strength and capability of the Department of Defense," said Matt Laudon, vice president of the TechConnect Division at ATI.
"We are enthusiastic about partnering with USPAE to extend this successful model to the public sector, eagerly anticipating the force multiplying effect that the infusion of $10 million in prize money, in parallel to related partnering and industry exposure will have on accelerating early-stage innovation," Laudon added.
“Innovative technological ideas span companies of all sizes, but not all companies can afford the traditional process to work with the public sector,” said Christopher Zember, senior fellow for Industrial Base Resilience, who is supporting DoD as the architect and lead for this project. “DBX is a program that can open doors for more companies by providing the seed funding to grow their ideas.”
Interested parties can sign up for updates and learn about DBX on TechConnect’s website, where they can also find more information here.
Suggested Items
CACI Receives Two DoD Nunn-Perry Awards for Advancing Technology through its Small Business Protégés
08/28/2024 | BUSINESS WIRECACI International Inc. announced that it won two Nunn-Perry Awards for excellence as part of the Department of Defense (DoD) Mentor Protégé Program.
SAIC Awarded $232 Million U.S. Army Contract for Systems Engineering and IT Modernization Services
05/13/2024 | SAICScience Applications International Corp. has been awarded a $232 million contract to develop signals intelligence and electronic warfare systems for the U.S. Army. SAIC was awarded this contract under the Department of Defense Information Analysis Center’s (DoD IAC) multiple-award contract (MAC) vehicle.
Ansys Joins BAE Systems’ Mission Advantage Program to Advance Digital Engineering Across US Department of Defense
04/16/2024 | ANSYSAnsys announced it is working with BAE Systems, Inc., to accelerate the adoption of digital engineering and MBSE across the Department of Defense (DoD).
PCB007 Magazine April 2024 — The Growing Industry Issue
04/15/2024 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamAfter more than two decades of steady decline in the U.S., the PCB industry is finally growing in the West thanks to the CHIPS and Science Act, DoD funding, and hopefully, the passing of HR 3249, the Printed Circuit Board and Substrates Act. The U.S. is now in a race to regain what was lost and then some. But what does “growing” look like for the organizations that have received DoD funding, and for the rest of us? How can we sustain this growth?
Coherent Secures $15M in Chips Act Funding Through the CLAWS Hub
04/12/2024 | CoherentCoherent Corp., a leader in wide- and ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors, announced that it secured $15 million in funding from the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act of 2022 that provided the Department of Defense (DoD) with $2 billion to strengthen and revitalize the U.S. semiconductor supply chain.