The Hacking for Ministry of Defence (H4MoD) pilot at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) in July 2023 wasn't just an educational program; it was a catalyst for change in the defence sector.

We are delighted to announce that Glasgow University, in collaboration with CMP, has been shortlisted for the 'Best Business School Partnership' at the prestigious AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards 2024.

Dr. Ali Hawks was named winner of the Innovation & Creativity Award, during the Women In Defence Awards ceremony, held at The Guildhall, London last Thursday 24th November.

Common Mission Project UK is pleased to announce Dr. Rachael Kelly as Interim Executive Director. Rachael will be spear-heading the organisation’s mission to bring innovative solutions to some of the UK’s most difficult challenges through educational engagement and outreach.

At Common Mission Project (CMP), we are immensely proud of our students’ record of entrepreneurial success. Since our inception in 2016, 2800 students have taken CMP Hacking 4 courses – tackling problems sourced from government and industry by deploying lean start-up methodology in class – building 400 teams and spinning out 53 start-ups. Even when they don’t reach start-up stage, many of our students build skills and form relationships that help them accelerate their entrepreneurial journey.

Paolo Lamparelli is a first-time Industry Mentor for CMP, having worked with a student team at Strathclyde University on the Mission Driven Entrepreneurship: Hacking for Ministry of Defence (H4MoD) Course this past Spring 2022. Industry Mentors are professionals in their field who are matched with an H4MoD student team to provide expertise, support and guidance from an industry perspective. Paolo’s problem centered around collecting information on soldiers’ nutritional intake, and his experience as a Registered Dietitian was crucial in helping his team come up with their innovative solution idea. We caught up with Paolo on his experience with H4MoD and what he’s gotten out of mentoring with CMP.

I knew I wanted my Masters Degree to serve as a segue into the professional world rather than as a purely academic qualification. With this in mind I took the ‘Hacking for MoD’ module as part of my MA in National Security Studies, which was instrumental in helping me realise and achieve my career goals and ambitions.

Gary Stewart is on the Board of Advisers at the Common Mission Project and joined us for a Fireside Chat in February 2022. Our Fireside Chat series features speakers from industry, academia, and ‘Hacking 4’ alumni to explore topics complementary to and inspired by our Hacking for courses.

The University of Hull is Common Mission Project’s first university to run a “Hacking for Police” course, where teams of 4-5 students will learn and apply lean start-up methods to solving pressing problems facing frontline officers in national and regional law enforcement.

“Hacking for Security, as well as providing our students with exceptional teamwork and problem-solving skills for modern agile businesses, also gives them the opportunity to work on real global security challenges. Working with UK MoD and Common Mission Project to source globally relevant challenges allows the course to support both UK MoD’s global presence as well as our student’s international background.” Module lead, Dr Gareth Tear

When Lila Ghosh began her master’s programme at King's College in London, she was drawn to H4MoD, the academic programme that is helping to solve national security problems at speed, because of the opportunity to work with actual stakeholders within the Ministry of Defense. She was returning to school after a long period in the workforce, and while excited to be in academia again, she really wanted to maintain a level of practical engagement. For her, the opportunity to engage with real-world problems and create tangible solutions couldn’t be ignored. Little did she know that her decision to pursue H4MoD would define her career and help position her as a leading innovator by the time she completed her degree.

The nation’s emerging threats and security challenges are being tackled by University of Portsmouth computing students, as part of a course to address complex real-world problems.

We caught up with Wing Commander Mike Burt to talk through his experience of being a Problem Sponsor on H4MoD. He recently sponsored a problem at the War Studies Department, King’s College London, looking at the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) recruitment process. His team’s solution will provide the RAF with a tangible way to measure the effect of the £15 million per year they spend on marketing, outreach and engagement activities to attract new recruits.

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has a way to monitor and analyse their carbon assets in order to help the MoD reach their Net Zero emissions target thanks to the work of a Hacking for MoD (H4MoD) student team from Cardiff University called Team DIO.

A Hacking for MoD team from King’s College London, Department of War Studies, that helped the Royal Air Force (RAF) find a more efficient way to communicate across its departments has created a startup to do the same for businesses scaling up.

A student team at Newcastle University Business School has devised a solution for helping the Ministry of Defence (MoD) achieve its mandate of Net Zero by 2050, as a part of the inaugural “Hacking for Sustainability” course at the University of Newcastle.

We caught up with Flight Lieutenant Peter Kennedy to talk through his experience of being a problem sponsor on H4MoD. He recently sponsored a Hacking for Ministry of Defence (H4MoD) problem at the War Studies Department, King’s College London looking at multi-domain operational planning. His team came up with a solution that will enable planners to collaborate more effectively across multiple locations.

‘H4MoD is by far the most rewarding course I have taken in my four years in higher education. The most exciting thing about the experience was having the unique opportunity to interview dozens of MoD stakeholders, knowing that your research could have a real-world impact in solving a national security problem’. Daniel Ben-Shaul, H4MoD Student.

Last week we caught up with one of our Problem Sponsors, Lt Col James Ashworth, Commanding Officer of 2 YORKS, currently the Army’s only Enhanced Light Force Battalion and, as announced under the Integrated Review, the Army’s future Prototype Warfighting and Experimentation Battalion. Lt Col Ashworth recently sponsored a Hacking for Ministry of Defence (H4MoD) problem at the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London looking at how to measure the “capability” of an Army Battalion.  His team developed a solution, now being implemented, that will allow him to measure the extent to which a £160 million capability investment has yielded a more capable fighting force. 

We caught up with one of our Problem Sponsors, Chief Petty Officer Steven Reilly, who recently sponsored a problem at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London around how to speed up Royal Navy Repair efforts.  He explained how the student team he worked with devised a solution that will save maintenance engineers one to two hours each day.