Technology Challenges and Opportunities to Special Operation Forces in 2027

SOCOM is interested in what lies ahead for the world 10 years from now, and what challenges or opportunities will be presented to Special Operations Forces. We are interested in the impacts of technological innovation in the civilian society around the globe. What new or evolved technology will have the greatest impact, either as a challenge or as an opportunity, for Special Operation Forces in 2027? How is daily life for humans around the world going to differ from today? What innovations will industry invent, which will shape society 10 years from now? How will technologies become disruptive by themselves or converged with other technologies?   What are the economic, social, and military effects created by this technological evolution? We want to know how you see the world in 2027 and the critical impacts it might pose for Special Operations Forces.

This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award.

The pace of technology change is arguably not slowing down and the proliferation of emerging technology-based capabilities to the global population is continuing to cause global effects.  We are interested in what lies ahead for the world 10 years from now, and what challenges and/or opportunities will be presented to Special Operations Forces (SOF). We are interested in the impacts of technological innovation in both military technology and civilian society around the globe.

SOCOM is interested in what lies ahead for the world 10 years from now, and what challenges or opportunities will be presented to Special Operations Forces. We are interested in the impacts of technological innovation in the civilian society around the globe. What new or evolved technology will have the greatest impact, either as a challenge or as an opportunity, for Special Operation Forces in 2027? How is daily life for humans around the world going to differ from today? What innovations will industry invent, which will shape society 10 years from now? How will technologies become disruptive by themselves or converged with other technologies?   What are the economic, social, and military effects created by this technological evolution? We want to know how you see the world in 2027 and the critical impacts it might pose for Special Operations Forces. 

AWARDS

Up to ten papers will be selected for a $1,000 prize and for the development of a more detailed paper providing supporting details to the summary. Awardees will be invited to a workshop in Tampa, Florida to present their paper the week of October 16^th. Upon attending and presenting their work, each awardee will be given an additional $1500. Travel expenses will not be provided.

This is an Ideation Challenge, which has the following unique features:

• There is a guaranteed award.  The awards will be paid to the best submissions (minimum of 5, but potential for 10) as solely determined by the Seeker. The total payout could be $25,000, with each potential individual Solver award being $2,500 in total to be paid out as follows:
  • $1000 will be paid to the top 5-10 papers submitted to this Challenge.
  • $1500 more will be paid after that awardee has presented their ideas at the Workshop to be held in October. (Note: Solvers will be attending at their own expense.)

• The Solvers are not required to transfer exclusive intellectual property rights to the Seeker.  Rather, by submitting a proposal, the Solvers grants to the Seeker a royalty-free, perpetual, and non-exclusive license to use any information included in this proposal.

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on August 10, 2017.  Late submissions will not be considered. 

After the Challenge deadline, the Seeker will complete the review process and make a decision with regards to the Winning Solution(s). All Solvers that submitted a proposal will be notified on the status of their submissions; however, no detailed evaluation of individual submissions will be provided.