New force in human sciences led by QinetiQ
in bid for major new MOD contract

QinetiQ has joined forces with the Thales-owned Quintec and 25 other associated partners to form the Haldane-Spearman Consortium and to offer the UK MOD and other customers in government, academia and industry value for money access to best of breed human sciences practitioners across Europe. It has submitted a bid to the UK MOD for a contract that will underpin human factors research for the UK military.

Stephen Leece, Consortium Director said: "The Haldane-Spearman Consortium offers unmatched knowledge of human sciences. Not only does this consortium represent a considerable proportion of the human factors expertise available in the UK, it is also setting out to use highly collaborative practices and a range of highly innovative working methods. Its insight already enables customers - both in military and civilian communities - to explore the full range of human challenges set within rapidly changing strategic environments."

The Haldane-Spearman Consortium's first bid is for the MOD's enabling contract ‘Preparing People for Operations: Human Contributions to Effectiveness'. This contract, due to be announced around 1 April 2005, seeks to identify a ‘preferred supplier' to MOD of human factors expertise. According to the MOD, this contractor will be able to deliver "the right people with the right skills and use the most appropriate technologies, techniques and products to sustain optimal military performance at individual and group level and in all operational environments".

Sylvia Horner, Quintec lead, said: "The Haldane-Spearman Consortium is a new model to exploit research, focusing the power of leading Human Science practitioners; scientists, world class academics, engineers and consultants. For the MOD, making the most of its most valuable asset, its people, is absolutely key to success in its military operations and peacekeeping activities. Human science provides the key to enabling people to reach their full potential, through better equipment, better processes and better working environments."

QinetiQ is consortium prime and already operates Europe's largest centre of human sciences at its Farnborough site in the UK. The Thales-owned human factors experts Quintec is lead partner and is specialist at delivering human factors integration and training services. These core members of Haldane-Spearman have a long track record of working on military human factors issues.

Recent QinetiQ research among troops across the armed forces has highlighted improvements that could be made to army ration packs. These changes can have enormous benefit in helping troops sustain their performance and increase morale. In addition, the QinetiQ team have developed guides to nutrition aimed at new recruits and front line commanders in the field, outlining the nutritional value of various foodstuffs and their impact on performance.

Thales has provided platform design and is managing the human factors process for the development of the 60,000 tonne Future Aircraft Carrier. For the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft, Thales has provides human factors and risk management as part of modifications to the aircraft to bring it into service.

In addition to the two core team members, Europe's TNO is also a member of the Haldane-Spearman Consortium, as are five major UK universities and around 20 specialist SMEs.

The name Haldane-Spearman is a tribute to two celebrated human scientists, the Scottish physiologist John Scott Haldane (1860-1936) and the English physiologist Charles Spearman (1863-1945). See below for more details.