WASHINGTON, DC (July 16, 2024) — World leaders from across the globe gathered in Washington last week to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The NATO Summit included the leadership from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), which continue to make significant contributions in increasing technological collaboration with NATO partners. During the weeks’ events, Aditi Kumar, DIU Deputy Director, Strategy, Policy & National Security Partnerships, sat down with Foreign Policy and Capital Factory for panel discussions focused on DIU’s international efforts.
Increasingly, joint innovation efforts have become a driving force in support of Ukraine and a key contributor to bolstering the Alliance in the face of Russian aggression.
The cooperation was in full display at the inaugural NATO-Ukraine Defense Innovators forum, held in Krakow, Poland at Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza (AGH) University in June 2024. The conference brought together more than 100 startups and 400 innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, and academics from across 17 countries. The Forum included panels, instruction, and a hackathon prize challenge, facilitated by DIU, NATO Innovation Unit, the Polish Ministry of National Defense, Dronecode, Brave1, a Ukrainian government platform to accelerate innovation across its military and ministries.
“Our cooperation with DIU ensured that this first landmark NATO-Ukraine innovation event had a focus on real operational problems, and that we could bring together the brightest minds from Allied innovation ecosystems to help solve them,” said Zoe Stanley-Lockman, Innovation Officer at NATO Innovation Unit.
Recent years have also seen the launch and development of NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA). DIANA provides companies with the resources, networks and guidance to develop deep technologies to solve critical defence and security challenges, from operating in denied environments to tackling threats to our collective resilience. DIANA began operating in 2023 and, this year, 44 companies from 19 countries have participated in its inaugural accelerator programme. Two of the five affiliated DIANA accelerator sites are in the US: MassChallenge in Boston and PNWMAC in Seattle. Each of the 44 selected startups were awarded €100,000, as well as receiving training, commercial advice, testing opportunities and access to potential investors and end-users across the Alliance. A second wave of DIANA defense challenges launched on July 1, 2024. Applicants for this second wave have until August 9 to submit their proposals.
The DIU-NATO relationship continues to grow, and opportunities for future collaboration include developing coalition projects on emerging technologies to support Ukraine, partnering with NATO members on shared interests like autonomous systems or artificial intelligence, and building out the emerging defense tech ecosystem in Europe.