Design a Kit to Provide Power, Potable Water, and Communications & Win $10,000

By Carla Voorhees

In December 2010 the U.S. Congress passed the America Competes Reauthorization Act, providing agencies with broad authority to conduct prize competitions as called for in President Obama’s 2010 Strategy for American Innovation. The America Competes Reauthorization Act gives agencies a simple and clear legal path to conduct prize competitions, thereby dramatically lowering barriers for agencies to use prizes to spur innovation, solve tough problems and advance their core mission.

The National Defense University and the Center for Technology and National Security Policy (NDU-CTNSP) announce the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Challenge (HADR-C) under the America Competes Act!

In March of 2010 a Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) was initiated by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) to deliver a capability that can support the immediate needs of first responders to a crisis event by providing essential services and the capability to quickly assess and survey a crisis area and communicate with regional and national level leaders to coordinate the national response. The project developed an integrated kit that provides:

■Reliable power from primarily renewable sources to power system components

■Potable water from local sources

■Local and global communications to transmit & receive voice, data and images

■Local situational awareness and information sharing

The kit satisfies all operational requirements as defined by DOD, and delivers more capability than is required by other user organizations. However, the JCTD kit is bigger, heavier and more costly than some user organizations can accommodate.

Interested individuals and organizations are invited to design a kit for use in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HA/DR) situations. The kit will be suitable for initial HA/DR response activities by US government departments and agencies, as well as by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and foreign governments. The kit and all its components must not be subject to export control restrictions and should, if possible, cost no more than US$50,000 and weigh no more than 500 LBS. All interested Competitors must submit an HADR-Challenge Submission Packet via the DOD’s Challenge.Gov platform no later than 15 August 2011. All submissions and competitors must address the HADR Challenge Design Parameters and adhere to eligibility requirements outlined in the announcement. The HADR-Challenge runs from 6 July 2011 through 15 August 2011. Announcement of the Challenge winner will be made on 31 August 2011. The total financial award for the winner of the HADR-Challenge is $10,000.

Visit Challenge.gov now for details on this challenging and exciting opportunity!