Army Tech Marketplace (ATM): Research Intelligence for the Innovation Economy

The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL)ĀFY25 solicitation topic submission deadline is looming.ĀJohn, a Senior Researcher at DEVCOM ARL, had been staring at countless research papers and scouring web-based publications for days to confirm state-of-the-artĀideas for his new Research and Development (R&D)Āproject. After months of independent study, he compiles enough information to complete his Request for Proposal, submits it for the directorate's yearly budgetary investment strategy review, and then meets with a peer to explain his research concept.Ā As they talk and John shares his most recent success, his peer is immediately interested; he informs John that a similar advanced joint research project is funded and ongoing by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. This scenario is common across the Department of Defense; strategic Research Intelligence (RI) is missing for Army innovators to be aware of and integrally involved in the innovation economy. Federal researchers, analysts, and innovators perform duplicative research surrounded by blind spots, wasting resources while lagging behind SOTA approaches to problems. In addition, the Government commits most of its financial resources to operational system maintenance; data indicates a disturbing low in R&D investment of 8% in 2020. Meanwhile, private-sector R&D investment has been high, outpacing public-sector investment by a large margin. To illustrate this point, since 1990, most R&D has addressed consumer demands and not national security demands. The ArmyÆs adoption of SOTA technology has become isolated due to incompatibilities between legacy Army practices and the rapidly evolving innovation economy. RI revolves around collecting, enriching, and analyzing scientific and technological information to create novel insights to support strategic decision-making and assessments at different individual, team, institute, or topic levels while considering the background of existing Army policies and mission statements. RI, Knowledge Management (KM), Market Intelligence (MI), and Business Intelligence (BI) are interrelated practices; RI encompasses the MI and BI practices. The Army Applied SBIR Program has developed an Innovation Framework to address these challenges; it aims to improve mutual understanding of Army technology problems and the innovation context within which solutions may be found. The Army Tech Marketplace (ATM) can be foundational software to achieve this goal.ĀATM can provide a foundational RI software platform, allowing the Army to explicitly, and more importantly implicitly, discover data that aligns with their innovation goals. ATM must provide methods to mature innovation at different levels of visibility and collaboration depending on the situation.Ā