TENET wins MoD GIRA Project

UK MoD has awarded the GIRA Research Project to TENET Technology Ltd. This three year research project seeks to establish a defense wide geospatial and environmental information model intended to support future GEOINT delivery, allowing all defense systems and users to access integrated, coherent, complete and up-to-date geospatial information.

UK MoD recognises the need to unify geospatial information provision. While the major goal of the project is to come up with a new, innovative and well thought out abstract model designed specifically for defense needs, the research will aim to exploit the benefits of the evolving standards in information modelling driven by ISO, OGC as well as drawing on open standards implementations from the US (NGA), NATO (BiSC AIS Core GIS) and EU (Inspire).

TENET’s significant experience in open standards based data modelling and technology supply in the defense arena is complemented by a project team which is truly world class. This team includes key industry players such as GALDOS Systems, famous for GML, ITT Visual Information Systems, experts in image handling and streaming technologies, and Oracle UK who have particular expertise in information assurance. In addition domain experts from Interactive Instruments GMBH, Top Quadrant Inc. and Nottingham University are advising on the project. 

Independent review and support will be provided by MoD domain experts from the Special Environmental Centers (SECs) such as the Defense Geospatial Center, UK Hydrographic Office, the Met Office and No 1 Aeronautical Documents Unit, as well as other specialist centers such as JAGO. The involvement of these organizations will be coordinated by dstl, who will also provide technical governance for the project.

The GIRA research will feed into the full DABINETT program, providing critical input to de-risk future provision of the Spatial Data Infrastructure within that project which is expected to eventually provide authoritative GEOINT to all MoD information customers.

Given the research succeeds in its primary goal, GIRA will ultimately allow procurement programs within IPTs to specify a single definitive source of GEOINT, rather than specific stove-pipe sources of specialist information. This will both improve MoD’s effective operating capability and achieve improved value for money in information and intelligence provision.

Roger Brackin, Technical Director of TENET commented “This project represents a new dawn for GEOINT within defense. We believe that our exceptional modelling skills and domain understanding will ensure success. Extensive regular review from world class experts, and an effective validation strategy based on a persistent testbed, will provide an excellent platform to deliver a practical and robust GEOINT model to meet MoD’s evolving GEOINT requirements over the next decade”

Captain Bob Stewart RN, UK MoD, said, “TENET was selected from a very strong field of contenders for this project.  Their outstanding experience with our data and systems coupled with their strong commitment to open standards finally won the day.  We are looking forward to a successful partnership in GIRA over the next three years.”

About TENET Technology:

TENET Technology is a world leader in geospatial intelligence technologies for mission-critical command and information systems and provides data modelling, and specialist consulting services in support of many defense research and development programs, particularly in the area of emerging open standards. Our COTS software and solutions are employed globally across a wide spectrum of disciplines including real time situation awareness, environmental analysis and exploitation, data fusion, and the management of very large and disparate datasets with extreme precision and high performance.

TENET Technology Limited
North Heath Lane
Horsham, West Sussex,
RH12 5UX, UK
Tel: +44 1403 273173  Fax: +44 1403 273123
Email: tenet@tenettechnology.com
Web Site: www.tenettechnology.com