The Chief Executive and Commandant of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Major General Peter Rowell, MBE invites you to the Defence Academy Research Symposium 2025:
Integrated Warfighting
- Date: Wednesday 18 June, 1300 to Thursday 19 June, 1300
- Location: Shrivenham
To sign-up, email: DEFAC-ResearchSymposium@da.mod.uk
Includes an evening alumni event.
Themes:
- deterrence
- innovation
- leadership and culture
- recruitment and mobilisation
- artificial intelligence, and command and control
Event highlights:
- Advanced Command and Staff Course (ACSC) research sprints and Hacking 4 MOD
- keynote speakers and expert panel discussions
- senior military and civilian perspectives on integration and warfighting
Diary clash? Bring your meeting with you, and we can host it.
For further information, email: defac-researchsymposium@da.mod.uk
Symposium Programme Day 1: 18 June 2025
Cormorant Hall Lecture Theatre, Joint Command and Staff College
| Time | Activity | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Opening Address | ||
| 1300 | Major General Peter Rowell, CE & Comdt DefAc | |
| Deterrence and Warfighting | ||
| 1330 - 1415 | Research Sprint Presentations | |
| 1415 - 1445 | Panel Discussion - Deterrence and Warfighting | |
| 1445 - 1515 | Refreshments |
Forum |
| 1515 - 1535 | H4MOD Presentation | |
| Artificial Intelligence and Command and Control | ||
| 1540 - 1610 | Research Sprint Presentations | |
| 1610 - 1640 | Panel discussion - AI and C2 | |
| 1640 - 1655 | Short break | |
| Keynote address | ||
| 1700 - 1730 | Air Chief Marshal The Lord Peach KG GBE KCB DL | |
| Evening reception and networking event | ||
| 1830 - 2100 | Hot buffet and drinks reception sponsored by the Cormorant Club | Forum |
Symposium Programme Day 2: 19 June 2025
Cormorant Hall Lecture Theatre, Joint Command and Staff College
| Time | Activity | Remark |
|---|---|---|
| Innovation | ||
| 0830 - 0915 | Research Sprint Presentations | |
| 0915 - 0940 | H4MOD Presentation | |
| 0940 - 1010 | Panel Discussion - Innovation | |
| 1010 - 1040 | Refreshments | Forum |
| Leadership and Culture | ||
| 1100 - 1130 | Research Sprint Presentations | |
| Recruitment and Mobilisation | ||
| 1130 - 1200 | Research Sprint Presentations | |
| 1200 - 1230 | Panel Discussions - Leadership and Culture, Recruitment and Mobilisation | |
| Closing Address | ||
| 1230 -1300 | Major General Rowell, CE & Comdt | |
| 1300 | Lunch | Forum |
The ACSC 28 research sprints leading to this symposium were launched on 28 May 2025, with each theme sponsored by stakeholders from across defence. During their research, syndicates were mentored by a subject matter expert and an academic from King’s College London.
Course members drew on their vast networks to interview and visit people from across the UK MOD, partner nations, industry and elsewhere, gaining a wealth of knowledge and information to inform their research.
Themes:
Deterrence and Warfighting
- What constitutes deterrence in 2025?
- Achieving deception in a transparent battlespace; lessons for Maritime, Land and Air.
- How do we use brinkmanship to bring success across the spectrum of conflict?
- Integrating Domains for the deep fight.
Artificial Intelligence and Command and Control
- C2 at the operational level against Peer competitors.
- AI application in operational planning.
- How should we develop command decision-making and campaign execution on ACSC?
Innovation
- How do we remove barriers to innovation in UK Defence?
- Armed Forces risk culture. How do we move from peace to warfighting?
- Maintaining the Operational Edge without the Technological Edge.
- H4MOD: From Lost to Found: Prioritising Reverse Engineering of Obsolete Parts.
- H4MOD: Safety First? Training for Weapons Usage on Operations OR From Bridge to Battle: Smarter C2 Solutions for Warships.
Leadership and Culture
- Warfighting and the Leadership Edge Framework.
- What is the role of PME in a peer-on-peer Warfighting context?
- How do we build resilience in our people?
Recruitment and Mobilisation
- Is the UK resilient enough to fully mobilise its reserves?
- Recruiting to warfight. What can we learn from other nations' approaches?
Hacking for MOD (H4MOD) is an innovative programme, originating at Stanford University in 2016. It gives students the opportunity to apply hands-on entrepreneurial and innovative methods to work on real-world government defence problems.
During the module students work in small teams to learn and apply lean start-up principles to a real-world UK defence problem. This learn-by-doing approach is critical to success in H4MOD and is the primary way students gain practice with the skills and concepts that H4MOD seeks to teach them, whilst offering significant value back to UK defence.
The Advanced Command and Staff 28 H4MOD cohort undertook research on the 9 problems listed below. The teams will be available during the Defence Academy Research Symposium if you are interested in learning more about their findings or experience.
| Problem title | Challenge |
|---|---|
| From lost to found: prioritising reverse engineering of obsolete parts | Chief of Defence Logistics Staff needs a way to review the large number of obsolete parts which are unavailable in the Defence supply chain in order to prioritise reverse-engineering and manufacturing the most critical parts to ensure equipment availability. |
| Safety first? Training for weapons usage on operations | Operations Officers onboard ships need a better way to train for weapons usage on operations while adhering to safety restrictions in order to greatly improve Naval warfare capability in a conflicted environment. |
| From bridge to battle: smarter C2 solutions for warships | Ships’ Commanding Officers (COs) need a better way to exercise Command and Control (C2) onboard warships in order to streamline communications in any conditions. |
| Invisible threats: addressing the human factor to novel weapons | Medical Capability Development Teams (MCDT) in frontline commands need a better understanding of novel weapons (NW) use, both present and potential, and the impact they have on the human, in order to better identify, prevent and treat victims of NW use. |
| Decoy dilemma: avoiding multiple sensory seekers | Carrier strike forces need a better way to use decoy capabilities to evade missile threats in order to counter complex weapons systems with multiple sensors and continue to defend platforms. |
| Mission possible: navigation in contested and extreme environments. | The UK Commando Force Programme Team (CFPT) needs to better understand and identify the most suitable and reliable methods of navigation within extreme climatic environments in order to enhance the operational capabilities if the UK Commando Force in increasingly contested environments. |
| Missile madness: countering mid-range drones at sea | Carrier strike forces need a better way to defeat Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/Systems (UAVs or UAS) in order to reduce expenditure on missiles while providing an effect at >10km range. |
| Make your mark: upscaling RAF targeting for global readiness | Air Officer Commanding 11 Group needs a better way to maintain and scale target-generation capacity in order to ensure Defence has a robust and effective targeting capability to support future conflict. |
| Deep decision-making: empowering the future submarine command team with Advanced Insights | Submarine Command Teams need a better way to understand and exploit increasing volumes of tactical sensor data in order to enable improved situational awareness and better strategic decision-making. |
Dress: Daytime - Standard Working Dress (Military: RN No3 A-C; RM CU20; Army MTP; RAF No2s) or Standard Working Dress (Civilian).
Evening - Standard Working Dress (Civilian) in accordance with JSCSC and Officers’ Mess Dress Code.
Seating in the Cormorant Hall Lecture Theatre: Seating arrangements are intentionally informal to allow our senior sponsors to interact with their allocated syndicate more closely, and to facilitate networking throughout the event.
Food: Refreshments and dinner will be provided on Day 1, 18th June, and refreshments and lunch will be provided on 19th June. There will be provision for special dietary requirements.
Evening networking event: The Cormorant Club is kindly sponsoring a Networking Event as part of this year’s Symposium. Please join us in the Forum from 1830-2100 on Wednesday 18th June to enjoy a hot buffet and engage with Symposium attendees. Drinks will be available in the Henderson Bar.
Accommodation: accommodation for external visitors is available for the night of 18th Jun, please email DEFAC-ResearchSymposium@da.mod.uk to make arrangements.
Travel and subsistence costs: the Defence Academy is unable to cover individual travel and subsistence costs, as such, these need to be covered by your own organisation.
Need to attend a meeting during the symposium meeting? Let us know via DEFAC-ResearchSymposium@da.mod.uk and we can arrange a meeting room for you.
Media/photography: Throughout the Symposium there will be photographers and videographers present. Images and footage captured may be used in internal and external promotion of the Defence Academy, and its courses. If you do not consent to being included in these outputs, please inform our photographers on the day.