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Are you the new Q? MoD wants to hear from you
Small is beautiful

By Jo Best

Published: Friday 14 November 2008

The Ministry of Defence is on the hunt for "budding Qs" to keep it supplied with the latest and greatest in gadgetry, the department announced today.

Any small businesses who fancy getting in on the MoD supplying action are invited to meet up with the MoD at a seminar next week in Glasgow.

The MoD is particularly seeking to make contact with SMEs who can provide kit for frontline troops.

Among the areas of defence technology the MoD is hoping the seminar can help with are improvised explosive devices, tech to reduce the weight of the loads that infantry soldiers carry and, in the longer term, technology that can help reduce the costs of keeping the Royal Navy fleet at sea.

A spokeswoman for the department told silicon.com: "The reason for this is we're looking to expand who we talk to. Obviously we work with Qinetiq, BAE systems and all the big companies – we'd like to work with a broad a range as possible."

The Support for Operations event - to be held on 19 November at Glasgow University's Kelvin Gallery - already has 100 organisations signed up.

The event will be jointly hosted by University and the Ministry of Defence's Centre for Defence Enterprise and will feature MoD personnel and recently returned troops, who can provide would be suppliers with insights into the trials of the frontline forces.

The seminar will also feature talks on the Centre's work and how to submit a proposal, as well as discussions on the MoD technology research programme.

"It's going to be a series of presentations on how to work with the MoD or how the MoD can work with you," the spokeswoman added.

The Centre for Defence Enterprise is the gateway between would-be suppliers and the MoD itself, and the first point of contact for tech companies who believe they've come up with a must-have piece of kit for the armed forces.

Vendors can make requests for research contracts through the Centre's site - science.mod.uk - through which the MoD has awarded £1.7m of contracts to date.