Opportunity

UK drone services and solutions – Request for Information

Connected Places Catapult is excited to be opening a request for information (RFI) to industry to investigate the drone-related services and solutions available now or in the near-term within the UK. 

This opportunity is now closed.

Background 

Throughout the next year, Connected Places Catapult and its solution partners will carry out demonstrations of drone technology solutions and services as part of the Drone Pathfinder Catalyst Programme, led by Connected Places in collaboration with the Department for Transport (DfT), CAA and BEIS.  These demonstrations will provide a showcase of the untapped capabilities and benefits currently available to many UK organisations across a breadth of industry sectors.   

Prior to these demonstrations, this RFI is intended to help Connected Places build a catalogue of industry capabilities, use cases and potential solution partners to inform demonstration planning and future procurements.  

The Drone Pathfinder Catalyst Programme is focussed on solutions that will generate a safe operating environment, reduce the barriers to entry, and ultimately, facilitate increasing adoption and use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones) across the UK for economic, social, and environmental benefit

Why respond to this RFI? 

Responding to this RFI will notify Connected Places Catapult of your capabilities and interests and enable us to keep you informed about specific opportunities as the programme progresses over the next 12 months. 

Organisations that successfully engage in subsequent steps in the procurement process will support the programme as a solution partner and benefit from opportunities including: 

  • Access to a part of a £250,000 funding opportunity, individually assessed per demonstration 
  • Showcasing their capabilities, with successes shared nationally 
  • Cross-sector industry networking and learning from best-practice 
  • Signposting to other potential funding opportunities  
  • Working with the CAA, DfT and BEIS, gaining opportunities to inform government roadmaps 
Who would we like to hear from? 

We are highly interested in each aspect of the end-to-end workflow which makes up a drone service or solution, not just the drone flight.  We would like to hear from companies interested in any UK sector with capabilities including but not limited to: 

  • Drone operators 
  • Drone flight planning, logistics and permissions 
  • Drone technology solutions  
  • Expertise in analysing, evaluation and sharing drone captured data 
  • Providing drone technology hardware 
  • Providing drone technology software 
  • Expertise in using robotics as part of a drone solution 
  • Expertise in using AI as part of the data analysis of a solution using drones 
Responding to this RFI 

This opportunity is now closed.

We have aimed to make this RFI process as quick and efficient as possible.  Many of the questions are completely optional, and we would be happy to receive brief responses with enough information to allow follow-up.   

Please respond by first reading the challenge statement below: 

Then, register and download the short response forms here:

Request for Information – UK Drone Services and Solutions (due-north.com)  

Once complete, you can then either upload your responses to the portal:

Request for Information – UK Drone Services and Solutions (due-north.com) 

Or email your complete responses to:  

procurement@cp.catapult.org.uk  

This opportunity is now closed. 

Contact 

If you have any queries about this RFI, please contact us by emailing drones@cp.catapult.org.uk 

Other drone opportunities and definitions

D-TRIG 

100% grant funding to ascertain technical feasibility for high risk innovation projects. Aimed at bolstering R&D for small businesses, increasing their capability and capacity to prove new ideas and enter new markets.

UK drone services and solutions – Request for Information (definition)

Demonstrating drone service & solution capabilities that are currently or imminently available for deployment in the UK.  Aimed at increasing uptake of drones across UK sectors in the very near term. It is not about funding research and development activities.