Unlocking Defence IP: The UK’s Hidden Innovation Goldmine
The UK has invested over £20 billion in defence R&D over the past decade, generating a vast portfolio of intellectual property spanning AI, autonomy, energy systems, health tech and advanced materials. Yet much of this innovation remains invisible, non-reusable and underexploited beyond core programmes.
Ploughshare manages a significant portion of this Ministry of Defence IP portfolio, which holds transformative potential far beyond the battlefield across healthcare, transport, energy and space technology sectors.
The Stranded Innovation Challenge
Valuable IP is becoming trapped within government defence establishments and private sector supply chains. Technologies developed for specific military programmes often remain confined to their original contexts with no pathway to wider commercialisation or cross-sector application.
This creates a double loss: missed economic opportunities and unrealised strategic advantages. Systemic barriers including complex procurement cycles, fragmented funding pathways, unclear ownership structures and lack of visibility prevent innovations from moving beyond their initial project contexts.
Strategic Intent for Transformation
There is now clear strategic intent to unlock this underutilised IP. The Strategic Defence Review shows commitment to build sovereign capability and strong supply chains while maximising competitive advantage in priority technologies like AI, autonomous systems and cyber resilience.
The establishment of UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) with reserved annual funding of at least £400 million demonstrates serious commitment to address these systemic issues. This creates what industry leaders call a “once in a generation” opportunity to drive fundamental change in how defence IP is identified, unlocked and developed across multiple sectors.
Cross-Sector Applications
Defence innovations have natural civilian applications that remain largely untapped:
- Space technologies from military communications can enhance commercial satellite operations and debris tracking.
- Cyber security solutions can protect critical infrastructure including energy grids and healthcare networks.
- AI systems designed for defence can transform healthcare diagnostics and predictive policing.
- Advanced materials and energy systems can drive innovation across transport and manufacturing.
The Ecosystem Solution
Success requires a ‘’whole of ecosystem” approach involving government, defence primes, SMEs, academia and regional innovation clusters. Key players must operate with increased transparency and clearly articulate needs and requirements.
Specialist intermediaries like Ploughshare play an important role as translators between sectors. They help navigate regulatory frameworks, identify new applications for existing technologies and structure licensing opportunities that accelerate market entry. These organisations can spot applications that inventors may not have anticipated and facilitate collaborations across sectors.
Implementation Foundations
Six key foundations form the basis of successful IP unlocking:
- Strong Leadership: Clear ownership and responsibility for end-to-end innovation delivery, including IP management and commercialisation.
- Targeted Investment: Coordinated funding pathways that support technologies through full development lifecycles beyond early-stage research.
- Greater Visibility: Centralised catalogues matching problems with solutions and creating feedback loops for newly developed IP.
- Adaptable Procurement: Moving beyond platform-specific approaches towards flexible models that accommodate cross-sector applications.
- Enhanced Partnership: Strengthening collaboration between government, primes and SMEs through formalised partnership frameworks.
- Cross-Platform Integration: Leveraging intermediaries to bridge gaps between innovation and implementation across multiple domains.
The Transformation Opportunity
The UK stands at a transformative moment. Its defence innovation base is rich in IP, talent and technical ability. With system-wide collaboration and targeted change, dormant IP can be converted into deployable capabilities that strengthen both national security and drive economic growth.
This approach could transform stranded potential into real-world capability, generating new revenue streams while strengthening the UK’s strategic advantage across multiple sectors. The infrastructure and strategic intent are now in place to make this transformation come true.
