MINERVA Initiative – Uncrewed Aircraft System Deconfliction

*Please note that the ISC website will be available on September 23, 2026*

This Challenge Notice is issued under the Innovative Solutions Canada Program (ISC) Call for Proposals 004 (EN578-24ISC4). For general ISC information, Offerors can visit the ISC website at: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/innovative-solutions-canada/en

Please refer to the Solicitation Documents Innovative Solutions Canada Program Call for Proposals – 004 - Tender Notice | CanadaBuys https://canadabuys.canada.ca/en/tender-opportunities/tender-notice/cb-331-17030872 which contains the process for submitting a proposal.

Steps to apply:

Step 1: Read this challenge.

Step 2: Read the Call for Proposals : https://canadabuys.canada.ca/en/tender-opportunities/tender-notice/cb-331-17030872

Step 3: Propose your solution here : https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/innovative-solutions-canada/en/minerva-initiative-uncrewed-aircraft-system-deconfliction

Challenge title: MINERVA Initiative – Uncrewed Aircraft System Deconfliction

Challenge sponsor: Department of National Defense (DND)

Funding Mechanism: Contract

MAXIMUM CONTRACT VALUE: $500,000.00 CAD

Multiple contracts could result from this Challenge.

Phase 2:

- The maximum funding available for any Phase 2 contract resulting from this Challenge is : $500,000.00 CAD excluding applicable taxes, shipping, travel and living expenses, as required.

- The maximum duration for any Phase 2 contract resulting from this Challenge is up to 15 months (excluding submission of the final report).

- Estimated number of Phase 2 contracts: 5

This disclosure is made in good faith and does not commit Canada to award any contract for the total approximate funding. Final decisions on the number of Phase 2 awards will be made by Canada on the basis of factors such as evaluation results, departmental priorities and availability of funds. Canada reserves the right to make partial awards and to negotiate project scope changes.

Note: Selected companies are eligible to receive one contract per phase per challenge.

Travel: Travel to Suffield, Alberta for prototype demonstration.

Kick-off Meeting: All communication will take place by telephone or videoconference.

Progress Review Meeting(s): Any progress review meetings will be conducted by telephone or videoconference.

Final Review Meeting: All communication will take place by telephone or videoconference.

Problem Statement:

Challenge Statement Summary

The challenge is to provide the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Canadian Army (CA) a software solution to provide an airspace common operating picture so that it can plan, deconflict, and control uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) traffic, including their use of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum, in order to ensure the safe and efficient management of UAS to enable the Canadian soldier to successfully fight and survive on the future battlefield.

Details:

Essential Outcomes

The proposed solution must:

1. Be Windows-based.

2. Allow a user to create and store flight plans, including radio frequency requirements.

3. Have a flight plan repository (database) that stores the 4D (3D + time) trajectories and spectrum requirements of all accepted flight plans.

4. Enable integration of supplemental data services such as crewed aircraft flight plans and weather.

5. Generate an optimal 4D flight path for UAS based on specific mission goals and physical limits.

6. Be able to check new flight requests against existing flight plans, airspace constraints (no-fly zones) and RF spectrum requests to detect conflicts and resolve them (via set priorities or a human decision).

7. Generate 4D blocks of deconflicted airspace (a "tunnel" or a "box") where a UAS is permitted to fly.

Additional Outcomes

The proposed solution should:

1. Analyze real-time data from UASs to prevent collisions and automatically adjust flight paths for UASs in controlled airspace.

2. Check in real-time whether a UAS is following its pre-approved, deconflicted trajectory.

3. Demonstrate capacity in having its critical components produced and sourced in countries within the NATO alliance, NATO Partners or Major Non-NATO Allies. To achieve this, Offerors are requested to provide as an attachment to their proposal, a list identifying the solution's critical components, the country of production and sourcing for each component.

Critical components and requested information for each Critical components are defined below:

Critical components:

1. Radio

2. Ground control station (GCS)

3. On-board computer

4. Any software

Requested information:

i. Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM): Name of the original equipment manufacturer of the product being sourced

ii. OEM URL: Provide the URL of the OEM

iii. Software: Confirm if developed by Offeror or outsourced

iv. Product name: Provide the OEM's product name

v. Model number: Provide the OEM's model and/or version number of the product

vi. Product URL: Provide the URL of the OEM product, model, and version

vii. Country of origin

IMPORTANT NOTE:

For this challenge, kindly disregard the Attachment requirements detailed at Section D in the Web-Portal, and instead adhere to the following:

- The attachment measures 8.5" by 11" with a maximum size of 10Mb.

- Only the following formats will be accepted: JPG, GIF, TIF, PDF or PNG.

- The attachment must be clear and legible.

Note: Including an attachment is not mandatory, but forms part of the Additional Outcomes, which is scored up to 10 points.

The Applicant (Offeror) acknowledges that it is within Canada's sole discretion to determine whether the attachment is removed or included in the Offer.

Background & Context

The CA is undergoing a generational modernization effort to address the evolving nature of technology, the changing character of conflict, and the unravelling of the geopolitical system. The transformative changes being made are conceptually described in the CA publication Inflection Point 2025. This document provides the broad context for modernization and directs the development and acquisition of key systems; in particular, it states: Key to this transformation is the integration of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotics, autonomous and uncrewed systems. These capabilities will support a wide range of functions, from intelligence analysis and predictive modeling to targeting and operational execution.

The CA, in recognizing this need, has purchased foreign robotics and autonomous systems of varying quality and has identified challenges purchasing systems that meet operational requirements, in particular related to cold-weather operations, and that have stable supply chains. Further, purchases have, in the past, been constrained by limited manufacturing capacity of industry partners.

To address this, the Government of Canada's recently released policy Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy, emphasizes the need to develop a strong domestic industrial capacity to produce defence materiel. This policy directs the CA to seek solutions to operational problems through Canadian industry, which will both improve the CA's capability while providing the foundation of a strong defence industrial base able to scale production of quality defence material.

To date, engagements with Canadian industry have revealed a wide variety of small/medium companies that have commercial technologies that could, with support, be tailored to military requirements.