UK Defence and Security Accelerator seeks Behavioural Analytics proposals

Published on 11 June, a UK Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) guidance document is seeking proposals that can help UK defence and security to develop capability in ‘Behavioural Analytics’.

Phase 1 of the competition was launched in October 2018 after Defence Ministry publication Joint Concept Note 2/18 on Information Advantage identified Behavioural Analytics as “an emerging analytical capability that will deliver a significant capability advantage for defence and security”.

According to Joint Concept Note 2/18, “Information is no longer just an enabler, it is a fully fledged lever of power, a critical enabler to understanding, decision making and tempo, and a means of achieving potentially decisive influence.

“The smart use of information through the mass customisation of messaging, narrative and persuasion, can vastly extend reach and deliver disproportionate influence on targeted audiences. It is underpinned by core digital technologies and digitally savvy people. This digital race – human and machine – is increasingly geopolitical in nature.

“Currently we are being challenged in a ‘grey-zone’ short of armed conflict by agile state and non-state actors – notably Russia – who understand our vulnerabilities and seek to exploit them through multifarious asymmetric approaches and the flouting of rulesbased norms. Central to these strategic contests are ‘information battles’; battles in which information is ‘weaponised’ and ones in which we increasingly lack the initiative.”

Identifying misinformation activities by Russia as a key example of the power of “a potent narrative amplified by contemporary technology” to offer significant advantage, the Concept Note states that success will continue to be “significantly influenced by the extent to which competing narratives influence, or fail to connect with, audiences.

“We therefore need to do things differently if we are to enable credible military options, maintain our freedom of action and political utility, and achieve influence in a more complex and competitive world.”

Now at Phase 2, the competition has a pool of £2 million available to fund multiple proposals to further increase the maturity of innovations than was expected at the initial phase.

Specifically, the exercise addresses the need to understand the identities, interests, motivations and intentions of individuals, groups and networks in order to achieve tactical, strategic or operational behavioural effect.

It focuses specifically on behavioural analytics, which it defines as “contextspecific insights, derived from data into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of individual, group and population behaviour, enabling reliable predictions about how they are likely to act in the future.”

According to the guidance document, the vast amount of data generated by humans offers enormous potential to change how scientists can observe and understand behaviour in order to achieve behavioural effect.

“Therefore, new and innovative theories, methods, models and tools are required to enable UK defence and security to harness the value from data and develop capability in behavioural analytics.

“Achieving the required level of nuanced understanding in future is expected to be challenging, but increasingly more important.

The competition is one of several complementary research activities that support the development of a behavioural analytic capability fit for the future UK defence and security operating environment.”

Following Phase 1, Phase 2 of the competition seeks to fund further development from proof of concept research into demonstrations that can show the art of the possible against challenges faced by defence and security practitioners.