How Ploughshare is commercialising UK defence IP for real‑world impacts

Ploughshare was founded in 2005 to commercialise UK defence and government IP. Credit: Suar Serambi / Shutterstock

The UK has a long history of developing world-changing technologies through innovations within its defence sector, among them radar, carbon fibre and the jet engine. Today, Ploughshare seeks to harness innovations from the UK Ministry of Defence and wider government for commercial returns and to improve lives across society – and artificial intelligence is among the most significant technologies with which it is working.  

Founded in 2005, Ploughshare bridges the gap between the advanced and often secretive research carried out by the UK government and the applications it can have in the civilian world. In this way, it helps the UK to take advantage of commercial and social opportunities stemming from such research that might otherwise have been missed.  

Technologies made accessible by Ploughshare are helping to improve radar imaging for marine vessels, making diagnostics and treatment in healthcare more effective and keeping cyclists safer on the roads, among other things. In addition to licensing it technologies, Ploughshare has spun out 17 companies based on them.  

Speaking to Stu Robarts, Ploughshare’s interim lead for digital and data Dr Hannah Askew and its VP for commercialisation in health and wellbeing Dr Mark Gostock discuss how the organisation commercialises IP, the real-world impacts of its work and the likely impact of AI.  

Dr Hannah Askew: Defence Intellectual Property (IP) has been responsible for some of the greatest technological innovations and breakthroughs in the commercial sphere. GPS, radar, EpiPens and jet engines all had their origins in the defence space, which makes sense, as solutions on the frontline need to be innovative, highly effective and have the ability to save lives.  

But, while history has shown that these ideas can be commercialised, pathways to market are often beset by challenges – from access to funding to availability of mentorship and support for the inventors, who are often first-time founders. These challenges are preventing potentially world changing solutions from getting into the hands of those who need them, stifling the creation of high-value jobs and millions in export sales and investment.  

Our aim at Ploughshare is to unlock this potential through our access to technology and innovators at the Ministry of Defence, including the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and the wider government. We identify the technologies, establish licence deals, nurture spin-outs and create ecosystems that enable these technologies to scale and deliver real-world impact. Our Accelerator Fund is also filling a funding gap and helping companies at the very earliest stages of their journey.  

Ultimately, we want to propel the UK government’s scientific breakthroughs from labs into the world and foster a culture of innovation that accelerates economic growth, enhances national security and addresses our most pressing global challenges.  

This wave of DDoS attacks targeting Poland will raise alarm bells around the world, given the series of leadership elections taking place this upcoming year. As such, governments, service providers, and enterprises, as well as society at large, should be prepared for these attacks.

Dr Hannah Askew: Defence IP can have applications in a wide number of sectors from healthcare technology to climate solutions to national security. We’ve supported a range of innovations including technology that can recover fingerprints from ‘impossible’ surfaces to help with convictions to a liquid repellent coating used to waterproof over 350 million of our phones.  

Another great example of defence IP that we’ve commercialised is an innovation that was originally developed to detect and protect against laser attacks on the frontline. In the civilian sphere, this innovation is now being used to pinpoint the location of laser attacks on civilian aircraft, providing data to prosecute and deter attackers.  

Dr Hannah Askew: There is huge potential for AI to make operations in the defence space more efficient and effective, and it’s already being utilised across numerous areas. We’re seeing it applied to predict failures and optimise maintenance schedules for military equipment, to detect and respond to cyber threats, to enhance situational awareness in the field and to train soldiers in battle-style scenarios.  

However, there is still more that needs to be done to regulate the AI technology that is being used, making it safe and responsible, requiring access to high quality, up-to-date and secure data sources. As these tools start to support decision making, ensuring diversity within those datasets and the development teams will be critical to mitigate bias throughout the product lifecycle. 

Dr Mark Gostock: A tangible example of the power of AI is in the healthcare sector, where it is can have a critical role in saving lives, particularly in a world where our healthcare services face rising demand. Infact, the World Economic Forum recently named AI-facilitated healthcare one of the top 10 emerging technologies of the past year.  

One of our spin-outs, Presymptom Health, has created a revolutionary test developed by an application of AI and ML analytics that can diagnose life threatening infections and sepsis before current standard of care is able to do so. It’s set to be a game changer when it comes to diagnosing and treating infection, by enabling quicker diagnoses and with better accuracy, ultimately saving lives. Its accuracy – only possible through the power of the AI and ML analytics – is also helping to prevent unnecessary antibiotic prescription upon suspicion of infection, tackling anti-microbial resistance, declared by the World Health Organisation as one of the top 10 global public health threats.  

This IP was originally developed based on 15-years work conducted at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, originating from Ministry of Defence investment into research to help service personnel survive infection from combat injuries and to tackle biological threat infection, which can lead to death from sepsis. We then facilitated the spinning out of this technology, recognising its potential for wider societal benefit.