The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has awarded a contract for human factors research for the UK military to the Haldane-Spearman Consortium led by QinetiQ with Quintec as lead partner.
Worth up to £20m for the six years, the contract will give the armed forces integrated access to human sciences thinking from industry and academia, under the umbrella of a single contract. Defence and security firm QinetiQ joined forces with the Thales-owned Quintec and 25 other associated partners to form the Haldane-Spearman Consortium to offer the UK MOD and other customers in government, academia and industry access to human sciences practitioners across Europe.
What they say
Andrew Sleigh, QinetiQ MD Defence said: "Optimising human performance and making equipment easy to use is of growing importance to our forces, especially as systems become more complex and military operations make new demands. Technology edge is important in defence, but so is getting the best out of people. I am very pleased MOD have selected the strong team of partners we have brought together to form the Haldane-Spearman Consortium to provide the underpinning research in this area."
The scope of the work will include research into physical fitness and mental performance, nutrition, sleep, selection and training, and how equipment can be designed and adapted to get the best out of people, especially in the ‘network enabled battlespace’ where human and equipment assets have to work together in novel ways.
Andrew continued: "The MOD made an important decision to place this work as a long term enabling contract. It has meant we have been able to form a much stronger and more integrated research team from the best practitioners in human science, and this is itself an important development for a subject that tends not to have the focus and profile it deserves."
The Haldane-Spearman Consortium has been awarded the MOD’s enabling contract ‘Preparing People for Operations: Human Contributions to Effectiveness’ and will act as a preferred supplier to MOD of human factors expertise. According to the MOD, this contractor is able to deliver "the right people with the right skills and use the most appropriate technologies, techniques and products to sustain optimal military performance at individual and group level and in all operational environments."
Stephen Leece, Consortium Director, said: "The Haldane-Spearman Consortium is a new model to exploit research, focusing the power of leading Human Science practitioners; scientists, world class academics, engineers and consultants. For the MOD, making the most of its most valuable asset, its people, is absolutely key to the success of its military operations. Human science provides the key to enabling people to reach their full potential, through better equipment, better processes and better working environments."
