Assignment to develop a smart personal assistant for security researchers at TRL6

OVERVIEW

Wazoku, the Seeker for this Innocentive Marketplace Expertise Challenge, on behalf of HMGCC and the UK national security community, is seeking innovators to apply to take part in an assignment to unlock faster, smarter, vulnerability insights.

The assignment will be required to develop a software tool to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6, that works without an internet connection and can assist a security researcher to index, search and understand vast quantities of data faster, enabling faster decision making.

Most likely your expertise will represent the technology themes of Artificial intelligence, app development, cybersecurity, data science and engineering, information technology, machine learning, software development, threat modelling or vulnerability research.

This is a Marketplace Expertise Challenge seeking a partner or supplier to take part in an assignment for the UK national security community, to develop a software tool that can be demonstrated in the relevant environment. The Solver is invited to submit a written proposal to be first evaluated by Wazoku and finalists by the UK national security community with the goal of establishing a collaborative partnership for the assignment with funding up to $65,000.

Solvers with a viable application will be supported by Wazoku:

• With the potential to be invited to pitch their application to the UK national security community
• Up to 2 applications could be selected for the assignment with funding up to $65,000 to develop the technology to a minimum TRL 6 – technology demonstrated in relevant environment
• The UK national security community will provide funding for time, materials, overheads and other indirect expenses for successful projects
• The assignment must be delivered over a 12-week period
• The target for starting the assignment is July 2026

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on May 5th, 2026.

Please review the later Participation Guidance section before submitting a proposal.

- Login or register your interest to apply!

ABOUT THE SEEKER & ELIGIBILITY

Wazoku is an innovation ecosystem platform encompassing AI, market intelligence, venture building, patent analysis and open talent networks. It centralises data, talent, and tools to make innovation measurable, impactful and able to solve pressing challenges.

Wazoku also operate Innocentive open innovation Challenges like this one, supporting the preeminent problem solver community who have delivered breakthrough results for organisations like NASA, the UK Ministry of Defence, the International Rescue Committee, and ExxonMobil.

HMGCC represents the UK national security community, with UK government, academia, private sector partners and international allies to bring engineering ingenuity to the national security mission, creating tools and technologies that drive us ahead and help to protect the nation. The partnership between HMGCC and Dstl (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory), was created to deliver a new, bold and innovative way of working with the wider science and technology community to bring together the best in class across industry, academia, and government, to work collaboratively on UK national security engineering challenges and accelerate innovation.

This challenge is open to sole innovators, industry, academic and research organisations of all types and sizes. There is no requirement for security clearances.

Applications from Solvers in countries listed by the UK government under trade sanctions and/or arms embargoes are NOT eligible.

THE CHALLENGE

Background

National security organizations undertake sensitive activities but also depend on complex supply chains to acquire and maintain the technology they need to operate. As part of that, security researchers carry out detailed tear-downs examining software, hardware and data components to identify possible vulnerabilities.

The first stage of this process is research. When a security researcher is tasked to examine a new product, particularly in the context of industrial control systems, they need to draw on open-source information at a micro-component level, such as technical specifications, datasheets, schematics and technical forum discussions. It is laborious and takes time that could be better spent on the analysis itself.

But before the expert analysis can begin, there’s a significant bottleneck: finding, indexing and understanding the vast amount of open-source technical information that exists about complex industrial machinery.

The Challenge

This challenge is about changing the above.

The belief is that human-machine teaming offers a real opportunity to reduce the research burden. Specifically, by looking for a system that can do three things:

• Index both structured and unstructured technical information about a product and its components
• Generate a clear technical summary of the product and its individual components
• Allow the researcher to ask natural-language questions about the product and explore the information interactively, adapting their line of investigation as new information emerges.

Industrial control systems can be highly complex and thus time-consuming to index and query related information.

Complexities can arise from the following:

• Products vary significantly, meaning there is no one size fits all
• There can be multiple product versions with varied components and software updates
• Security researchers rely on their experience, processes and trusted sources, such as information directly from the vendor and trusted online forums
• A chain of trust is formed from:
  • Physical components such as filters, fuses, processors and memory sensors
  • Software across a range of forms including source code or binary for multiple different processors and operating systems in the same product

Consider this use case: Alicia is an experienced security researcher with a focus on industrial control systems. She has been tasked to assess an industrial additive manufacturing machine. The machine will be used in a manufacturing facility without an internet connection, to build critical, classified, components for national security and defense operations. Any vulnerabilities must be understood and mitigated. She begins with the vendor manual, supplied in paper copy and PDF. Using the wiring diagram and schematic she starts to investigate the hardware architecture, including interfaces and components and microprocessors. She sources datasheets online for each component and also finds photos of various teardowns. She starts to pull out all the available code supplied by the vendor. She consults online forums, some trusted and some are new to her. Alicia starts to build up a large library of information on the product and its components. She drags and drops each bit of information into her ‘tear down assistant’ tool. As she builds this library of information, she naturally starts to learn about how the machine works, but she also needs to be able to call back on this vast amount of information efficiently. An intelligent, easy to use search and summary capability is essential. When she wants to explore the machine's interfaces, she types a query into the tool and receives a conversational response, backed by a reliable source. She builds on this with follow-up questions, each time receiving a well-grounded answer, citing sources. Where answers are not clear, this is highlighted with alternative theories. As the assistant starts to learn Alicia’s behavior, it adapts to her needs. This operates more than just a search tool but is more like a personal assistant who really understands the subject matter, and Alicia.

SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS

This challenge focuses on finding applicants for an assignment to build a standalone software tool that can ingest relevant open-source information, compile it into a searchable library, support natural language queries across multi-modal formats and provide conversational intelligent and well-informed answers.

Proposals must not just focus on off the shelf Retrieval-Augmented Generation systems.

After the 12-week project, the final deliverable should be a software tool meeting the stated requirements for testing in-house by the UK national security community (TRL 6).

Must-have requirements for the assignment:

• The tool must have the ability to understand system architecture of a selected machine. A non-exhaustive list of components to understand are the physical interface interactions, data interfaces and protocols
• Have an ability to check and validate responses before publishing, to prevent erroneous information and hallucinations
• Characterize from multimedia inputs, such as including manuals, schematics, datasheets, corporate databases, images, code, handwritten annotations
• Verify information by listing sources and cross-checking against high confidence data such as industry publications, academic research and manufacturer documentation
• Flag a confidence score and if more source data is required
• The solution should be capable of operating on a laptop without an internet connection, allowing users to characterize complex systems and identify vulnerabilities in environments with limited or no connectivity
• Provide an easy to search and intelligent function to query the dataset in a chat-like manner
• Keep a memory of queries so conversations can be continued over several weeks without repetition of prompts
• The tool must work without an internet connection

Nice-to-have requirements for the assignment:

• Build a profile of the user and adapt to their needs, for example to present information in preferred formats and even proactively provide information that is frequently requested
• Ability to translate and index non-English data sources (e.g. datasheets and forum posts)
• Recognize and mitigate cultural biases to ensure a nuanced understanding
• Ensure the software tool remains up-to-date when offline. Consider in a future iteration how the solution may incorporate a mechanism for periodic updates of the core tool and its indexing/search algorithms

Out of Scope for the assignment:

• The system does not need to autonomously identify or search for source data (e.g. datasheets, schematics and forum posts). Test data will be provided.

Finalists will be scored 1-5 on the following criteria:

Feasibility

• What is the technical credibility of the minimum viable product proposed?
  • Is it technically possible?
  • Are there key technical risks overlooked?
• Likelihood of the minimum viable product reaching or exceeding the minimum required TRL?
  • Does the proposal aim to reach the minimum TRL?
  • Assessors’ confidence in the proposal from technical perspective?
  • Will the proposal exceed the minimum TRL?
• Credibility of the solver/team regarding technical and project management skills?
  • Does the team have all the relevant expertise?
  • How experienced are they?
  • Have they delivered something similar before?

Desirability

• How closely does the proposal directly address the challenge?
  • Does the proposal achieve all essential requirements?
  • How many desirable requirements are achieved?
  • Is this something the user’s want?
• How strong is the benefit?
  • Is the benefit to the user’s well described?
  • Have the applicants identified dual-use markets? (Applicants should consider markets beyond UK national security)
• Ambition of the proposed solution?
  • Does the solution provide an incremental step in capability or significant leap?
  • Is the proposed solution unique to the applicants?

Viability

• How well is the exploitation route described?
  • Is the proposal just aiming to deliver the minimum for the project? Or have they got a project plan post phase 1?
  • Are they thinking about commercial exploitation routes? (please do think beyond UK national security)
  • Are there rough costings for future iterations?
• How well does the proposal demonstrate value for money and are the costs broken down and justified?

YOUR SUBMISSION

Please login and register your interest, to complete the submission form and add attachments.

The submitted applications must be written in English and include:

1. Participation type – you will first be asked to inform us how you are participating in this challenge, as a Solver (Individual) or Solver (Organization).
2. Do you have relevant expertise to develop the software to a minimum TRL 6 – technology demonstrated in relevant environment.
3. Can you start the assignment from July 2026?
4. Which of these fields does your expertise come from? Artificial intelligence, app development, cybersecurity, data science and engineering, information technology, machine learning, software development, threat modelling or vulnerability research.
5. Maximum 6 page attachment (Word format) describing how you would deliver the assignment;
   1. Scope - Describe how the project aligns to the challenge scope and solution requirements stated above
   2. Innovation - Describe the innovation and technology intended to be delivered in the project, along with new IP that will be generated or existing IP that can be used
   3. Deliverables - Describe the project outcomes and their impacts
   4. Timescale - Detail how a minimum viable product (MVP) will be achieved within the project duration
   5. Budget - Provide project finances against deliverables within the project duration
6. Supplementary Attachments - Key team personnel CVs and expertise, organizational profile if applicable.

PARTICIPATION GUIDANCE

1. Submission Close Date: Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on May 5th, 2026.
2. Late submissions: Late submissions will not be considered.
3. Multiple submissions, One Maximum: In case of multiple submissions by the same Solver, only one submission – the final one submitted – will be considered. Any other submissions will be deleted prior to evaluation.
4. Submission form and attachments: Your submission attachment should be no longer than 6 pages.
5. Evaluation notification steps: After the Challenge submission close date, Wazoku will review and select the solutions it will propose and position with the UK national security community, according to the timeline in the Challenge header. Everyone who submits a proposal will be notified about the status of their submissions.
6. Use of AI: Please note that any submissions produced solely with generative AI are not of interest.
7. Learn more: Find out more about participation in Innocentive Challenges.