Ploughshare Innovation Fund

Ploughshare Innovations manages the Ploughshare Innovation Fund, which makes financial resources available to Dstl scientists to move patented Dstl technologies towards commercial exploitation in non-defence sectors.

For example, funding to support the development of plasma discharge technology allowed the transfer of the technology out of a research laboratory into a pilot plant. This technology is now being commercially exploited by a dedicated spin-out, P2i.

In another case, funding is leading to the development of a sonar reflector (an underwater equivalent of “cats eyes”). These products have potential use in oil & gas exploration, undersea cabling location, and marine protection. The original “cats eyes” invention by Percy Shaw (1935) is noted to be one of the top ten inventions chosen by the public.