NATICK, Mass. (April 22, 2016) -- The U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, or NSRDEC, has used the Bootstrap Initiative and Pitch Day for the second consecutive year to encourage innovative ideas from employees while reducing obstacles and red tape.
NSRDEC introduced the Bootstrap Initiative as an exciting new way to spark ingenuity, out-of-the-box thinking, risk-taking and employee participation. The program accepts proposals from government civilian NSRDEC employees, who may submit ideas for new technologies, research projects, business processes or administrative processes. The innovations must support NSRDEC's mission, which includes researching and developing cutting-edge food, clothing, shelter and airdrop technologies.
This year's Bootstrap Initiative resulted in 29 proposals, with 14 groundbreaking ideas being chosen by NSRDEC employee voters to receive funding. Proposals ranged from multi-compartment ration pouches to a new way to study gut bacteria to an airborne load assistance device.
The Bootstrap Initiative is driven by employee enthusiasm, participation and empowerment. Employees are the ones who come up with the innovative ideas, and they are also the ones who vote and decide which ideas will receive funding.
NSRDEC's Dr. Ken Desabrais, a research aerospace engineer, conceived the idea for the Bootstrap Initiative and led the Bootstrap Implementation Team.
"Bootstrap empowers anyone at NSRDEC to propose an idea that they think could help our organization in achieving its mission of supporting the Soldier," said Desabrais. "The unique community voting process used to select projects for funding encourages grassroots participation of the workforce to learn more about the ideas and interact with their colleagues from across the organization.
"Over 200 people attended the Pitch Day event this year and 68 percent of the workforce participated in the voting process. This level of involvement creates opportunities for people to interact with each other to form new relationships that can lead to future collaborations."
"As an organization, we are committed to creating and supporting a culture of innovation," said Tom Merle, chief innovation officer at NSRDEC. "We are constantly looking for ways to provide the inspiration, tools, environment and methods that allow our teams to deliver creative and valued innovation to the Soldier.
"The Bootstrap Initiative is one of our flagship efforts. It is a unique, inclusive and empowering program that encourages creative ideas, big and small, from across the organization and then relies on the broad community at NSRDEC to decide which programs best support our Soldier-focused mission. This entire initiative begins and ends with the creativity and passion of the people at NSRDEC."
"The Bootstrap Initiative is a great opportunity to provide funding for projects that I would not otherwise get to work on," said Eric Brack, whose NSRDEC Bootstrap project investigated the effectiveness of iodine and chlorine tablets on hazardous chemicals that could potentially contaminate emergency drinking water.
The creativity, originality and enthusiasm encouraged by the Bootstrap Initiative was on full display at NSRDEC's Pitch Day, which provided proposers the chance to win employee voter support through demonstrations, interactive displays and show-and-tell sessions.
"The Bootstrap Initiative has provided a uniquely fun forum for NSRDEC scientists to conceive smaller-scale projects that can rapidly be turned around," said Dr. John Ramsay, an NSRDEC research biomechanics engineer. "Our project, the Low Cost Airborne Soldier Load Assistance Device, was submitted because of a direct load carriage need that arose from our ongoing relationship with the 82nd Airborne."
"I'm glad to see that so many people liked our idea," said NSRDEC chemical engineer Laurel Doherty, who devised a new way to study gut bacteria. "We've had it in mind for a while, but we didn't have the resources to carry it out. This Bootstrap money will let us streamline our idea into our ongoing research projects instead of waiting to fit the work into a new proposal."
"Having colleagues at NSRDEC hear our pitch and find value in the simple solution we are providing to the Airborne Soldiers is exciting," said Ramsay. "It reinforces the idea that, at our core, we are all here to support the Soldier and are eager to make their job easier and comfortable."
"The outcome from last year's Bootstrap projects has not only created new technical solutions and increased our capabilities, but it has also created new collaborations both within NSRDEC and with outside organizations based on new connections formed through the Bootstrap Initiative," said Desabrais. "This diversity of ideas moreover helps create an environment for developing innovative and creative solutions for solving the problems of our Soldiers."
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The U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter and our nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
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U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center
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