To maximise the potential for exploitation of the UDRC's research, it is important to obtain early influence from industrial representatives into specific projects. This interaction serves to steer, guide and nurture the research to ensure that it has the best opportunity of being taken forward into development projects. To enable this interaction, UK Defence companies are invited to "adopt" one or more of the UDRC projects.

Adoption is free and without any commitment on the part of industry. You are merely registering an interest in the work. Registration requires only the signing of a 3-way Non-Disclosure Agreement NDA (company, university and Dstl) to protect the Intellectual Property Rights of the parties involved. The template for this NDA is available for download. Once registered, UDRC will send you regular updates on your adoptees, and you will be invited to the UDRC quarterly Theme Meetings (TMs) and to participate in one-to-one activities with the projects. Attendance at the TMs also requires completion of Participation Agreement.

It is expected that, under this adoption scheme, industry will be able to form individual relationships with one or more projects that will have mutual benefit for them and the researchers, enhancing potential for exploitation at the end of the project. Obviously the relationship will be tailored to suit the individual parties, but it could include technical peer review, advice on real world requirements or constraints, data exchange or even short secondments for the researcher.

If you wish to take part in this adoption scheme, please in the first instance contact Paul Thomas at Dstl (pathomas@dstl.gov.uk) with details of which projects you would like to adopt. In parallel, please download the NDA and Participation Agreement and review them with a view to signing before adoption.