A pilot program to help companies bid for British defense contracts is being put in place this month by the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory.

Research Cloud, or R-Cloud will help broaden the organization's access to suppliers and also reduce the cost of trading with DSTL by providing easy-to-use, direct access to current and future research requirements.

"Dstl places in excess of �Pounds 200 million (about $334.7 million) worth of research contracts every year," said Richard Bishop, head of Procurement at DSTL. "R-Cloud will help us enormously to broaden our supplier base across industry and academia by enabling suppliers of all sizes to know what our requirements are, whether they qualify for bidding for a particular piece of business, and, if so, when and how they should do so.

"Our objective is to identify and create a means of working with the brightest and best suppliers of science and technology research. We will keep costs to a minimum and paperwork will be kept simple and readily accessible."

DSTL said the pilot program starting this month is focused on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear capabilities. Suppliers working in the area can apply to be part of the pilot project via the Defense Contracts Online pre-qualification portal.