Project Athena

ATHENA is funded by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and managed by the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (Dstl) to provide MOD with a central repository for storing scientific and technical reports. This will make the results of defence science research available to the wider defence community.

ATHENA allows those working in defence to:

• access valuable information from past and present research programmes and therefore further exploit the results obtained
• share information more efficiently
• find experts working in a particular field.

This will result in:

• improved knowledge
• prevention of duplicated effort
• stimulation of new ideas.

ATHENA produces a range of products which allows the defence community to access reports, information and guidance. These products are available to a variety of different users and announce the inclusion of new reports in the collection.

Defence Reporter

Defence Reporter is an unclassified bulletin providing bibliographic information on research reports recently added to the collection. This product has unlimited distribution and is available by following the link above.

Online Science Gateway (OSG)

The OSG is a portal provided by ATHENA with the aim of supporting MOD and defence research communities by making key Science & Technology (S&T) information available. The OSG is available to MOD employees on the MOD’s RLI (Restricted LAN Interconnect) network at http://osg.dstl.r.mil.uk

MOD users can request an account by following the instructions on the site. Access is then provided to the full range of MOD-only reports and information.

ATHENA is also working to make parts of the site available to all users of the RLI, including defence industry partners and other government departments.

The OSG provides access to a range of S&T information, including:

• Defence Research Database – a searchable database of full-text S&T research reports
• Capability Domains – 15 sub-sites providing the latest research in specific capability areas
• ATHENA Current Awareness Products – a range of products, including the Defence S&T Newsletters
• guidance on writing reports and abstracts
• output of other S&T-related projects, such as Horizon Scanning.

Defence Research Database (DRD)

The DRD is a searchable database of Science & Technology (S&T) research reports and gives access to full-text or bibliographic information on reports up to Restricted classification. It is available to MOD users on the OSG.

The full-text reports can also be requested via ATHENA’s Customer Service Desk: kisrequests@dstl.gov.uk

Capability Domains

The OSG contains 15 Capability Domains aligned to broad MOD capability areas. These provide access to a broad range of information specific to each Domain including:

• the latest research reports, arranged into themes & sub-themes for easy browsing
• high-level MOD strategy, standards and policy documents
• links to relevant sections of the Defence Technology Plan (DTP)
• events, news and links.

Defence S&T Newsletters

The Newsletters are restricted, MOD-only bulletins aligned to the Capability Domains. They combine records of research reports recently added to the collection together with relevant information taken from ‘open’ sources, such as news and events.

If you would like to know more, please contact defence-newsletters@dstl.gov.uk

Defence Research Abstracts (DRA)

The DRA is a monthly journal providing bibliographic information of new reports that have been added to the DRD, split into subject categories using the COSATI taxonomy. A contractor restricted version is available on pdf & an automatically updated MOD version is available on the OSG.

For more information, please contact athena@dstl.gov.uk

For report writing guidance and more information on the material in the ATHENA collection follow this link, . For more information on Project ATHENA and its products and services, please see the ATHENA leaflet or contact Clive Harrison (Project Manager) or Ann-Marie Knowles (Associate Project Manager) on athena@dstl.gov.uk