As part of the U.S. Army’s focus on revolutionizing the way they attract and encourage innovation, Army Futures Command (AFC) partnered with the xTech program to host the xTech | Innovation Combine Advanced Energy Storage Challenge (Innovation Combine). The Innovation Combine provided an opportunity for eligible companies and organizations to pitch novel advanced energy storage technology solutions directly to the U.S. Army.
To rapidly find and engage with cutting-edge technology providers in this space, the U.S. Army Ground Vehicles Systems Center (GVSC) partnered with the 2F team of venture-trained researchers and innovators. The 2F team provided support throughout the process from initial scoping through to proposal evaluation by Army Futures Command judges to determine which opportunities were worth further investment.
2F’s Research Team supported the Ground Vehicles Systems Center (GVSC) and Army Research Laboratory (ARL) for the xTech Innovation Combine Advanced Energy Storage Challenge Event. Through this prize challenge event, the Army was looking for cutting edge technology solutions for battery monitoring and management, as well as safe, printable, conformal batteries. Learn more: www.arl.army.mil/xtechsearch/
Second Front Systems (2F) is a public benefit, venture-backed software company dedicated to fast-tracking government access to emerging technology for national security missions. Learn more: www.secondfront.com
2F developed proprietary market maps, leveraging best of breed data and natural language processing, to help GVSC and ARL better understand commercial leaders in this space. Our team then collected contact information to enable GVSC and ARL to to proactively and efficiently hunt down solutions that will support the warfighter rather than passively waiting for companies to find the solicitation on their own.
Through these efforts, Army Futures Command and 2F expanded industrial base participation in this event provided greater diversification of thought leadership, capability offering, and investment opportunity for the Army.
2F demonstrated the requisite methodology and capability to execute the development of a commercial engagement strategy for the Army, resulting in the ability to develop dual-use technology that would have otherwise been unknown to the Department of Defense.
