The Defence BattleLab project marks a £5.7m collaboration between the MOD, Dorset Council and the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), to provide an ambitious Defence building programme at the heart of Dorset, dedicated to the pursuit of innovation and technologies of the future.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is pioneering a world-leading innovation hub known as the Defence BattleLab. The purpose of the Defence BattleLab is to foster collaboration without constraints.
The Defence BattleLab is a unique opportunity for prime contractors, small and medium-sized enterprises and academia to directly engage and collaborate with the MoD, regardless of industry. The military is seeking all types of technologies that could solve the complex challenges they face.
The Defence Battlelab is located at Dorset Innovation Park (near Wool), a Government designated Enterprise Zone which offers support to relocating companies including business rate holidays. It is a multi-million pound three floors facility featuring rentable office and desk spaces for companies and organisations from November 2021.
The new facility also features an engineering workshop, areas for collaboration and conference rooms. It has 5G mobile connectivity, ultra-fast broadband, proximity to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and a direct train line to London. It will provide a unique ecosystem giving opportunities for businesses to grow in partnership.
Dorset Innovation Park is already home to leading defence related companies such as Atlas Elektronik UJK, Qinetiq and Norco. The Park is 10 minutes from the MoD’s Lulworth Ranges offering live fire capability, 15,000 ft of cleared airspace, sterile sea area, and is one of only two areas in the UK for multi-domain integration. The Ranges and nearby waters of Portland Harbour offer ideal conditions for trials, testing, experimentation and evaluation across land, sea, air and space.
The Defence BattleLab is an open door to all ideas and offers organisations the opportunity to become truly enmeshed in the defence problem sets and areas of technological interest.
If you are interested in taking space at the Defence BattleLab, please express your interest in an email to Joanna Rufus at joanna.rufus@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk
Dorset Innovation Park is owned by Dorset Council and represents significant investment in the development of an advanced engineering and manufacturing centre of excellence by the Council and the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership.
