UK Ministry of Defence,
Baroness Taylor, Minister for Defence Equipment and Support has announced the development of a Defence Technology Plan (DTP) today, Tuesday 13 November 2007.
The DTP will take the Defence Technology Strategy forward and provide clear direction to the research and development (R&D) community, allowing industry and academia to better direct investment in defence science and technology. The DTP will set out the research programme by presenting technological roadmaps of R&D objectives. The DTP aims to be fully up and running by late 2008.
Baroness Taylor said:
“We are taking the Defence Technology Strategy forward by developing the Defence Technology Plan. This plan will enable transparent prioritisation and coherence across MoD's R&D programme by setting out the research programme in the form of technology roadmaps derived from key R&D objectives. It will form the basis of our national and international partnerships with academia, industry and allies.”
The DTP will be a clear plan starting with research goals based on capability requirements, showing how the goals will be met by R&D activity. MoD is developing the plan in consultation with the wider stakeholder community. DTP will have a dynamic online format, allowing regular updates when necessary. MoD published the Defence Technology Strategy in October 2006.
R&D Staff include Science Innovation Technology (SIT), who manage approximately £500m of the Research budget, Defence Equipment and Support(DE&S), who manage some £2bn of project expenditure associated with Development, Equipment Capability Customer (ECC) the military 'customer' organisation for future equipment, and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
