News story: Accelerator face-to-face meetings

An opportunity to book a meeting with the Defence and Security Accelerator team to discuss your research idea.

The Accelerator is holding Enduring Challenge and Autonomous Last Mile Resupply themed challenge face-to-face meetings in London to give you the opportunity to discuss your innovative research idea in private.

The Accelerator focuses on innovations which can provide advantage to defence and national security to protect the UK from its adversaries. It funds the development of suppliers’ innovative ideas and provides support through to potential application. This is through the enduring competition or specific themed competitions.

Before you come to your meeting please prepare by thinking about:

  • what is your research idea?
  • what do you think the benefit is to defence and security?
  • will it save time/costs, improve capability/performance/reliability?
  • why should MOD or the Security Agencies invest in this work?
  • what will your approach be?
  • how will you structure your research?
  • what will you deliver? what evidence will you produce?
  • what will the impact of your research be?
  • how will you demonstrate progress towards the claimed benefit?

The main purpose of this meeting is for you to ask questions, and most importantly, receive advice from the team, so please leave time for this during your session.

Spaces will be on a first-come, first-served basis and an organisation should only register once.

Defence and Security Accelerator Email accelerator@dstl.gov.uk Telephone+44 (0)30 67704236

Please email for the quickest response.



Liberal Democrats hit highest ever membership on eve of local elections

The Liberal Democrats have hit their highest ever number of members, eclipsing the high watermark of 101,768 set in 1994.
The landmark comes as Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron heads to Oxford to rally activists for the party’s final push of the local election campaign.

More than 14,000 new members have joined the Liberal Democrats in the two weeks since the General Election was called. More than 50,000 members have joined since last year’s European referendum and nearly 70,000 since the 2015 General Election.

Tim Farron pledged to build the party to 100,000 members by the end of the parliament as a key pledge during his 2015 leadership campaign – but at that point everyone expected the end of the parliament to be 2020.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: “We are going into these local elections bigger than ever before, with a clear message and a growing sense of momentum.

Join the Liberal Democrats

“In many of the counties where these elections are taking place it is the Liberal Democrats who are the main challengers to the Conservatives. Liberal Democrat councillors are the strong opposition to the Conservatives across the country, standing up to them on cuts to schools and elderly care.

“You don’t need to agree with us on everything to agree that Britain needs a strong opposition to fight for you and your communities against Tory cuts to our schools, our NHS and our social care services. In county halls just as in Westminster, Liberal Democrats are that strong opposition that Britain needs.”

 



Nonsense from a Tory campaign that’s all slogan and no substance – Andrew Gwynne

Labour’s
Andrew Gwynne said:

“This
is yet more nonsense from a Tory campaign that’s all slogan and no substance.

“Their
claims are so flimsy that even the most cursory reading reveals error after
error: claims that don’t add up, things they say are Labour policy which aren’t
and blatant misrepresentation of policies which we have clearly set out how to
pay for. The whole thing isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

“That
Philip Hammond is willing to put his name to this nonsense is deeply worrying
given it suggests he’s unable to tell the difference between capital and
revenue spending.

“Frankly
this is just the latest desperate attempt by the Tories to distance themselves
from their failures and to distract from the fact that they’ve not ruled out
hitting those on lower and middle incomes with further tax increases.

“Labour’s
policies are fully-costed and properly paid for. Our plans will be set out in
our manifesto. Don’t trust the Tories: they are the party of the few, not the
many.”



Labour to halt the Tories hospital closure plan

Labour
will today announce that a future Labour Government will immediately halt
the proposed closure of A&Es in England and carry out a full scale review
of all proposals. 

Having
listened to campaigners and concerned patients up and down the country,
Jonathan Ashworth, as Labour health secretary will immediately halt the Tories
chaotic ‘sustainability and transformation plan’ (STP) programme. 

Shadow
Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, will say: 

“Labour
will put the best interests of patients at the heart of our NHS so today I’m
announcing we will halt planned closures to hospitals and other services. We
will have a moratorium on the STPs. 

“We
have listened to the hundreds of patients and campaigners up and down the
country that have been pleading with the Government to hear their concerns
about their local services. Threats of hospitals being closed, A&E services
moved miles up the road, and children’s wards being shut, have caused widespread
concern and confusion. What is more, these decisions have been decided behind
closed doors, with no genuine involvement of local people. It’s a disgrace.

“The
public deserves better. My first job as Secretary of State will be to review
every single STP proposal looking at what’s in the interest of quality of
patient care.

“We’ll
ask a new body – NHS Excellence – to lead that review. And patients and local communities
will be involved at every stage. Local people should be at the heart of
decisions about how care is provided.”



Theresa May is less Margaret Thatcher and more Veruca Salt – Emily Thornberry

Emily Thornberry,
Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary of State, speaking on Channel 4 News, said:

“The truth is that
Theresa May paints herself as a bloody difficult woman or a Margaret Thatcher
figure, but I think this is less Margaret Thatcher and more Veruca Salt. You
can’t just stand there and simply say: ‘I want, I want, I want’ when you are
negotiating.

"What you have to do
is to persuade the other side that you have some ideas that would be good for
both sides. You need to be able to calm down and you need to be able to make
friends and be prepared to compromise.

"Otherwise we are
heading for a hard Brexit; we are heading for no deal and she must back off. A
strong Brexit is about a deal that works for the British economy. We are
talking about people’s jobs – that’s the important thing.”