The competition is being run through the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), the innovation arm of the MoD, on behalf of the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL).
Up to £200,000 will be made available over 12 months to support projects with technical readiness levels of 3-6, DASA said in a statement.
According to DASA there is currently a gap in the evidence base to support what metrics can be robustly measured by wearable technologies and how data from wearables could help improve decision-making in the battlefield.
The competition will focus on two areas of innovation, said DASA.
The first is the demonstration of new sensor technologies and of the data generated from these sensors against existing validated measures. The second will look at the exploitation of data from current or novel wearable systems to provide prognostic insights into human health and well-being.
DASA identified a number of technologies that competition entrants could test. They include the demonstration of measurements not generally available through wearable technology, such as hydration status and stress markers; form factors that enable the collection of data in a minimally intrusive format; physical, psychological and environmental stressors such as heat or cold, altitude and infection relevant to specific baselines; and experimenting with the use of wearable sensors in combination with data analysis to measure the environmental effect on individuals.
In a statement DASA said the aim of the project was “to understand what metrics we can collect from wearable technology platforms, and how they add value to defence end users.
“In addition, we seek proposals that show how wearable technology can provide actionable insight to inform decision-making pathways regarding health and well-being.”
Proposals can be submitted up until 5 January 2022, with a second cycle scheduled to run until 2 March.