CCAT eyes funding for first responder technologies
The technology development program will leverage the established CCAT program resources with the Regional Technology Clearinghouse and Test Bed Program funded by the City of San Diego, and managed by the homeland security staff at San Diego State University.
There are two concurrent opportunities for awards and services, each separately funded and managed but closely aligned and focused on achieving the same objective: getting DoD-developed technologies into the hands of the first responders.
The primary service offered to selected applicants by the SDSU 1401 Project team will be the introduction of their technology for test and evaluation by one or more first responder agencies. Concurrently, awards and services may be provided by the CCAT San Diego Project team for selected technologies of interest to the first responder community wich have an established operational utility.
The SDSU 1401 Project team will coordinate and facilitate the introduction of selected technologies and oversee the independent assessment of their performance in a simulated or actual operational environment. The results of the beta tests and demonstrations will be captured in a final report to include first responder comments and recommendations; definition of any technical issues; gaps to transition such as capital resource needs of the company, etc. The report will be provided to the 1401 Program sponsors, the participating first responder agencies and the company. CCAT San Diego, through the competitive process defined below, will select viable technologies of interest to the first responder community, and provide selected services to facilitate the technical assessment and assist the company in transitioning their technology to the marketplace. These services, depending on the availability of project funding, include one or more of the following: in-depth market studies, business and commercialization planning services, mentoring, access to venture and angel investment capital, and other business development services. In addition, small grants ($20,000 to $50,000) may be provided to support technology integration, adaptation or other modest modifications to facilitate a more effective test and evaluation and/or to make the product more suitable for transition.
Awards may include funding for product development finalization, test and evaluation, market studies, access to investors and other business development services.
Technologies of particular interest will focus on Command, Control and Communication (C3) including: (1) automated situational awareness; (2) voice and data processing technologies; (3) automated personal location; (4) cross-agency automated vehicle location; (5) automated knowledge boards; and (6) biomedical health monitors.
Based on the initial evaluation and scoring of the applications from the teams of subject matter experts, CCAT San Diego will invite the most viable applicants to participate in a special presentation to a panel of subject matter experts. Panel presentations are scheduled for June 5-6, 2008 in San Diego.
In order to accelerate the technology transition process, all awards will be tailored to the specific needs of each award recipient. CCAT will announce awards by July 1, 2008. Awarded technologies will be subjected to demonstrations and beta tests by first responder agencies within the Southern California region. The resulting evaluations will be made available to the program sponsors, participating agencies and the product technologists themselves.
To submit an application for consideration or for more information on CCAT, interested companies and individuals should contact CCAT at its Web site, www.ccatsandiego.org. Award applications must be submitted no later than 4 p.m., May 1.
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