Funding competition Police custody welfare, remote screening and monitoring system: SBRI competition

Organisations can apply for a share of £150,000, including VAT, to develop an integrated remote monitoring and screening solution for the care of people in custody.

This competition is now closed.

Register and apply online

Competition sections

Description

This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition. The aim is to source a technological solution for managing the care and welfare of persons in police custody.

Police Scotland is seeking an integrated technological solution that can remotely monitor individuals and provide an early warning and intervention alert system. This should improve custody health and welfare outcomes.

The solution will ideally have:

  • a biometric capability to allow healthcare professionals to carry out remote consultations
  • the ability to indicate whether any potential internal concealment presents a clinical risk

This competition is supported by the Can Do Innovation Challenge Fund.

The overall programme will be delivered over 2 phases. This is phase 1 of a potential 2-phase competition. A decision to proceed with phase 2 will depend on the outcomes from phase 1. Only successful applicants from phase 1 will be able to apply to take part in phase 2.

Phase 1: research and development contracts, feasibility study

The first phase involves research and development contracts being awarded to demonstrate technical feasibility of the proposed solution. A total of up to £150,000, including VAT, is allocated to phase 1 of the competition.

We would welcome bids that bring together a consortium of sector specialists.

Phase 2: research and development contracts, prototype development and testing

The second phase involves up to 2 R&D contracts being awarded to businesses chosen from the successful phase 1 applicants. Up to £200,000, including VAT, will be allocated for each contract, in order to develop a prototype and undertake field testing for up to 12 months.

This competition closes at 12pm midday UK time on the deadline stated.

Funding type

Procurement

Project size

We expect projects to range in size up to total costs of £30,000, including VAT, for each organisation.

Who can apply

Phase 1 projects must start by 17 June 2019, end by 1 December 2019 and last up to 5 months. We expect to fund up to 5 projects.

To lead a project, you can:

  • be an organisation of any size
  • work alone or with others from business, the research base or the third sector as subcontractors

The tenderer or their representative must complete, sign and upload with your application form:

  • appendix A: declaration of non-involvement in serious organised crime form
  • appendix B: police service of Scotland security aspects form

Successful applicants must be vetted to Non Police Personnel Vetting Standards (NPPV) Level 2. It would be beneficial if you could put forward a team that holds or has recently held NPPV Level 2.

These documents are all available via a secure site when you register for the competition.

If your company has more than 5 employees it must comply with the Equality Act 2010.

Funding

A total of up to £150,000, including VAT, is allocated to phase 1. It is anticipated the feasibility study R&D contracts will be up to £30,000, including VAT, for each project for up to 5 months. We expect to fund up to 5 projects. The assessors will consider fair value in making their evaluation.

Applications must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively for R&D services. R&D can cover solution exploration and design. It can also include prototyping and field-testing the product or service. R&D does not include:

  • commercial development activities such as quantity production
  • supply to establish commercial viability or to recover R&D costs
  • integration, customisation or incremental adaptations and improvements to existing products or processes

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is to develop a system that has the capability to act as a contactless health monitor while also acting as a remote CCTV viewing platform.

It needs to monitor several people at once located at different geographical locations in Scotland.

The solution needs to automatically provide a visual and audible alarm or alert function. This must instantly transfer to any custody suite throughout the country if immediate intervention is required by on-site custody or healthcare staff, or even off-site healthcare staff in a neighbouring custody suite.

The solution must have a biometric capability to allow healthcare professionals to carry out remote consultations and monitor a subject’s health, such as heart rate (including variations), temperature, breathing and movement.

We would also like the ability to indicate whether there is a clinical risk of any potential internal concealment of foreign bodies, such as drugs, weapons, phones or cigarettes.

The design of your proposal must include its full capability, design specification, technological and ICT requirements. An estimated cost of the proposed system would also be helpful before progressing to phase 2.

If your application is successful you must engage with Police Scotland information and communications technology specialists as soon as possible after you sign the contract. They will make you aware of any possible IT constraints.

If you are successful in phase 1, you will develop a prototype ready for field testing in phase 2.

Projects that we will not fund

We will not fund projects that:

  • do not address the remote monitoring aspect
  • covers only ‘life signs’ technology
  • are wearable devices

28 January 2019
Competition opens
4 March 2019
Kincardine briefing event
20 March 2019 12:00pm
Registration closes
27 March 2019 12:00pm
Competition closes
10 May 2019
Applicants notified
7 June 2019
Phase 1 contracts awarded
7 June 2019
Feedback

Before you start

To apply:

  • register online using the green button
  • read the guidance for applicants for this competition
  • consider attending the briefing event listed in ‘Dates’
  • complete and upload your online application to our secure server

We will not accept late submissions. Your application is confidential.

A selected panel of experts will assess the quality your application. Use Microsoft Word for the application form or your application will be ineligible.

Background and further information

About Police Scotland

The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 created the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and set out its core functions of scrutinising policing in Scotland and holding the Chief Constable account whilst also maintaining and improving the police service.

Police Scotland is the third largest public sector organisation in Scotland and is responsible for the care and welfare of all persons in police custody. The custody estate consists of 42 primary centres with a yearly throughput of around 130,000. Many of these have complex health and welfare needs. The healthcare of a person in custody is the function and responsibility of the NHS and is delivered locally through the 14 Scottish NHS boards.

Further help and information

You can find information on how to enter this competition in the invitation to tender document, which is available for download on our secure site after registration.

Questions related to the particular requirements of this competition should be addressed directly to the Public Contract Scotland Question and Answer Portal under reference PROC433.

If you want help to find a project partner, contact the Knowledge Transfer Network.

If you need more information, call the competition helpline on 0300 321 4357 or email us at support@innovateuk.ukri.org.

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