Department of Defense Innovation Ecosystems

The Department of Defense (DoD) innovation ecosystem provides a collection of many organizations seeking to enhance the innovation and entrepreneurial activities of individuals and companies working on projects of interest to the United States' national security.

The DoD innovation ecosystems include organizations working within and in partnership with the following military, governmental, and private organizations: Air Force, Army, Navy, and other Defense Agencies.

Organizations participating within the Department of Defense Innovation Ecosystem can be categorized into several categories based on their purposes, such as accelerators and incubatos, contest and competition organizations, federally funded research and development centers, funding providers, government contracting authorities, partnership intermediary agreements, and OTA consortiums.

DoD-funded incubators and accelerators are structured, focused, and time-sensitive programs where start-ups or ideas receive mentorship, education, and networking resources from industry experts.

Contest and competition organizations arrange innovation contests and competitions to solve military problems. The winner of the contest or competition will be provided with funding and support resources to further develop prototyping solutions that may end up being used within the DoD.

DoD front door resources exist to provide resources and connections to start-up companies. These organizations may host conferences or networking events where industry professionals gather to discuss, and potentially collaborate, ideas with one another.

The Defense Innovation Marketplace connects public industry experts with the United States Department of Defense and allows the two to collaborate on technological advancement. Additionally, the marketplace offer initiatives that allow companies to recover some funds that were put into products if the product is to be pursued by the DoD. Acquisitions and other types of funding occur within the Defense Innovation Marketplace.

Federally funded research and development centers are public-private partnerships between labs and the government. The research and development centers receive funding to conduct research for the U.S. Government. The labs can be independent or may have a university affiliation.

DoD-funded incubators and accelerators provide the necessary financial support to start-ups or ideas for innovating the United States Department of Defense.

The Department of Defense leverages research and development funds to create and invent new technologies. As a result, the Department of Defense has over 4,000 patents that can be licensed by industry.

Partnership intermediary agreements are contracts or agreements between federal labs and other entities where there may be opportunities for technology exchanges or collaboration for joint projects.

An other transaction authority (OTA) is a relationship between a government sponsor and a collection of traditional and non-traditional vendors, non-profit organizations, and academia aligned to a technology. This could include specific technology domains, such as the cyber domain, space domain, undersea domain, and propulsion domain, to name a few examples. These organizations, with their expertise in a technology domain, work to find innovative solutions for government technology challenges in the intended scope and purpose of other transactions.

Through the accelerator and technology development grant programs associated with the Department of Defense's innovation ecosystem, programs such as SBIR/STTR, AFWERX, or the Air Force Research Laboratory, there are various funding opportunities and open calls or funding solicitations in specific technology applications or developments.