SOFWERX, in collaboration with USSOCOM’s Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T) Futures, will host the thirteenth Innovation Foundry (IF13) Event in Tampa, FL, which intends to bring together Special Operations Forces (SOF), industry, academia, government, and futurists in an exploration, design thinking, facilitated event to assist USSOCOM in decomposing future scenarios and missions.

With the rapidly changing technology, communications, and media landscape around the globe, the information environment in 2040 will be very different from what it is today. The theme of IF13 is information operations, specifically actions to produce desired behavioral responses. The event seeks to explore the challenges of information advantage and informational power in the future, as it pertains to SOF operations and missions, as well as joint forces and partners. Challenges include developing a vision for SOF operations in a vastly different technology environment, with new media and communications paradigms; understanding their impact on the future information environment as well as SOF operations; and developing concepts for SOF operations in the future information environment, as it relates to intelligence, data, and operations.

In this effort, S&T Futures is working with Next-Generation Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (NGISR), Next-Generation Effects (NGE), and Networks and Data Management (NDM) Capability Function Areas, in conjunction with echelons of intelligence and operational staff.

S&T Futures has developed and refined a unique process, the Innovation Cycle, to engage technology pioneers and leaders, and to discover and develop high risk, innovative, and disruptive technologies for future on-boarding. This Innovation Foundry is the first event in the Innovation Cycle and is the idea generation phase. It will be followed by a Rapid Capability Assessment (RCA) to develop capabilities, and Integrated Technology Sprints (ITS) to demonstrate proofs of concept.

Deliverables for the IF13 event will include preliminary capability concepts targeting the defined problem areas which may impact SOF forces and operations in the 2040 timeframe, in the area of information operations. These preliminary capability concepts will be developed further in a follow-on Rapid Capability Assessment event.

Futurists and visionaries from industry, academia, and government and national labs who are experts in the areas of interest and those who are specialized in SOF Operations are encouraged to participate in the IF13 Event by submitting a CV *(Curriculum Vitae) below NLT 19 May.

Click Here to Request to Attend