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The Air Force Research Laboratory ( AFRL ) and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer ( STTR ) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines , changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small businesses and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution .

The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR / STTR programme in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded .

Now , QuSecure will continue its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen national defence .

“ Following our successful performance of the previous SBIR Phase I award , QuSecure is proud to continue with the Department of the Air Force ’ s efforts toward a more cybersecure national defence ,” said Patrick Shore , Director of Strategy , Government for QuSecure . “ This award from the Air Force recognises QuSecure ’ s ability to help enhance our national security capabilities .”

The ARFL is the primary scientific research and development centre for the DAF . The AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery , development and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for air , space and cyberspace force .

With a workforce of more than 12,500 across nine technology areas and 40 other operations across the globe ,

AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development .

As the innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the AFRL , AFWERX brings cutting-edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the DAF .

AFWERX employs approximately 370 military , civilian and contractor personnel at five hubs and sites executing an annual US $ 1.4 billion budget .

Since 2019 , AFWERX has executed over 6,200 new contracts worth more than US $ 4.7 billion to strengthen the US defence industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability .

QuSecure is a leader in post-quantum cybersecurity with a mission to protect enterprise and government data from quantum and classical cybersecurity threats .

Its quantum-safe solutions are pitched as providing an easy transition path to quantum resiliency across any organisation .

The company ’ s QuProtect solution is the industry ’ s first PQC software-based platform uniquely designed to protect encrypted communications and data with quantum-resilience using a quantum secure channel .

QuSecure has current customer deployments in banking / finance , healthcare , space / satellite , IT / data enterprises , data centres and various Department of Defence agencies . �

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