This cycle of the Security Open Call competition focuses on priorities identified by the Home Office and the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA), with future cycles potentially reflecting the priorities of different or additional government stakeholders.

Home Office Challenge Areas include secure data sharing across policing and government, tackling online harms and cyber-enabled threats, strengthening national security resilience, understanding migration behaviours, disrupting organised immigration crime, and improving border and immigration outcomes through innovation and technology.

NPSA Challenge Areas include vehicle screening, extended reality, crowd screening, hostile reconnaissance detection, AI-enabled training and intrusion detection technologies.

Funded projects are expected to deliver a prototype or technology demonstrator at Technology Readiness Level 6 or 7 and show a realistic route to operational impact within two years of project completion.

The Security Open Call uses a two-stage application process designed to identify promising ideas at pace while reducing bidding effort for innovators.

Applicants will first submit a Stage 1 overview proposal, which UKDI will share with the competition challenge owners. Ideas that align well with the Competition Focus Areas, demonstrate a strong chance of successful delivery and meet the customer’s needs will be invited to progress to a full Stage 2 submission.

Proposals will only be funded where there is alignment to the competition challenges and strong demand for the idea.

Successful proposals for the Security Open Call can be funded up to £350,000. Projects can run for a maximum of 12 months, with an optional testing and trialling phase costed into proposals to extend activity to 18 months.

The first cycle opens on 3 August 2026 and closes on 27 August 2026, with additional cycles planned throughout 2026 and 2027.