procurement decisions, to technical research in defence areas such as biomedical science and electronics, alongside operational work such as forensic analysis of explosives and providing paid volunteer scientists to Iraq and Afghanistan to provide rapid scientific advice to British forces. It has done work for around 40 government departments and agencies including the Home Office and Department for Transport. It undertakes research with both industry and academia to achieve its role. Following a review and consultation process initiated by MOD's Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA), it became responsible for the formulation and commission of MOD's non-nuclear research programme from 1 April 2010, under the responsibility of the Dstl Programme Office. Within the Programme Office were 16 domains with some established as Science and Technology Centres, including Armour and Protection, Cyber and Influence, Counter Terrorism, and CBR (Chemical, Biological and Radiological). These centres fund research via the Centre for Defence Enterprise, also part of the Programme Office. A subsequent MOD CSA-led review in 2015 into MOD's science and technology capability recommended that the commissioning of science and technology should be independent of the delivery. Following this, the commissioning role was moved to Defence Science and Technology (DST) within MOD Head Office, with Dstl focusing on delivery. Within the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 was a proposal to create "a government-backed service designed to help small and medium-sized businesses bring new ideas to market more quickly". In 2016, it was announced by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon that this 'Defence and Security Accelerator' would have access to an £800m innovation fund and build on the 'Centre for Defence Enterprise' model, operating within Dstl. In 2017, Dstl began a five-year programme of innovation in space science. In 2019, Dstl opened a new satellite ground control station at Portsdown West to support future space research. In March 2020, scientists from Dstl began supporting Public Health England to better understand COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. By January 2021, around 300 scientists were said to be involved with COVID-19 support. R-Cloud Research Cloud (or R-Cloud) is the Dstl's supply chain marketplace for science and technology research. Version 4 went live on 1 December 2020. R-Cloud frameworks cover eight "capability areas": Command, Control, Communication and Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR); Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN); Counter Terrorism and Security (CT&S); Cyber; Human Capability (HC); Integrated Survivability (IS); Platform Systems (PS); Weapons. Locations