On Friday 15th September, the UKDSC hosted and facilitated the first ADS-SJAC Defence Industry workshop. The interactive workshop was held at UKDSC offices, Cody Technology Park, Farnborough, with the aim of showcasing the UK’s innovative capabilities and areas for potential joint cooperation in the future.
The workshop enabled UK and Japan defence industry to further strengthen their relationships in a more informal setting, as a follow on from the formal ADS –SJAC Defence Industry Dialogue held at DSEI on Wednesday 13th September.
The workshop explored ongoing innovation challenges that have been run by the UK; focussed on Persistent Aerial Surveillance and Big Data.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Niteworks were represented, to brief on their cooperative activities. Additionally there were 8 Japanese companies and 17 UK companies present (including SMEs).
The UKDSC explained the scenarios and the Innovation challenge winners were afforded the opportunity to demonstrate their innovative capabilities to the Japanese delegation.
The event was well received by the Japanese delegates and it is planned that the workshop will be a catalyst for future engagements throughout the remainder of 2017 and into 2018.
The next step on the roadmap of activities will be the UKDSC’s presence at RUSI Japan Mikasa Dialogue in Tokyo, October 2017. This event will provide an engagement opportunity for discussion of practicalities and principles for more tailored workshops in 2018.
