AI Powered Market Intelligence & Tech Scouting Recommendation Engine to Drive DoD Discovery and Engagement of an Innovative Industrial Supply Chain

Small businesses are the engine of innovation and job and wage growth in the US. They generate two out of every three jobs added to the economy and over twenty-four percent (24%) of all patents in the top 100 emerging clusters. They also are critical component of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) supply base. The Secretary of Defense recently noted that “[s]mall businesses provide our most creative entrepreneurs and most driven workers.” (U.S. DoD Small Business Strategy, January 2023, p. 4). Nevertheless, over the last decade the number of small businesses in the defense industrial base has decreased by more than 40%. DoD’s inability to identify and engage innovative businesses with the solutions required to empower and protect our warfighters is a matter of national security. We can neither project strength to deter aggression in times of peace, nor protect ourselves and our allies in times of war, if we lack the ability to design, manufacture and deliver the goods required to equip, train, and supply our warfighters at a level that meets or exceeds the ability of our adversaries. One of the key barriers to solving the supply chain issue is DoD’s lack of effective tech scouting and market research tools. Tech scouting and market research are labor intensive processes and current scouting and research tools are incomplete and imprecise. As a result, scouts are often unable to identify the innovative companies, faculty and solutions that are ideally suited to address DoD’s requirements or to paint an accurate picture of the technical landscape. NAVSEA SBIR seeks a solution to facilitate tech scouting, market research and industry engagement to support Navy bespoke requirements in (i) Shipyard and maintenance activities; and (ii) microelectronics (ME). Third Coast Federal’s iScout platform utilizes an AI powered recommendation engine to instantly evaluate DoD requirements against an entire marketplace to pinpoint those providers with the precise capabilities and solutions required to solve the stated challenge. The purpose for the proposed research and development effort described in this Phase II STTR proposal is to fine tune iScout’s recommendation engine, implement robust human-in-the-loop and machine learning algorithms, implement improvements to the knowledge graph (including curation tools), and expand iScout’s data and features to support the Navy’s identification and engagement of innovative teams from industry and academia capable of addressing the Navy’s Shipyard and ME requirements.  Third Coast Federal also will implement a Navy Microelectronics Innovation Ecosystem to support the Navy Microelectronics Strategy, and a Shipyard Innovation Ecosystem to support Navy shipyard maintenance and innovation requirements.