The need for information and communication technology superiority is central to defence and security. Significant and enduring challenges include pervasive intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) working across multiple sensing domains; communications; and capability that is affordable, survivable, and responsive to rapidly evolving threats in electromagnetic denied environments.

This will be increasingly underpinned by interconnected technology and sensing modalities, leveraging advances in autonomy, embedded systems, and AI. The family of interconnected technologies covered by SPADS, from sensing to knowledge and autonomous systems, spans the key tasks of sensing, processing and communications across both software/algorithms and hardware, covering both discovery and mission-inspired research.

Each component further subdivides into areas such as sensor hardware, fabrication and integration, machine learning (ML) and symbolic AI algorithms, sensory fusion architectures, autonomous agent design, human-machine cooperation techniques, low-power architectures, computing-at-the-edge, secure-by-design hardware, nanotechnology and emerging (beyond CMOS) electronics.