Jade Hayes
Marking a significant milestone, NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) commenced operations on Monday, 19th June 2023. DIANA has issued its inaugural call for proposals, seeking innovative solutions to pressing defence and security issues. By fostering collaboration between governments, industry, academia, start-ups, and other innovators, DIANA aims to propel their ideas and businesses to success.
This year, DIANA is set to support the most promising minds in developing dual-use technologies, focusing on three key areas: energy resilience, sensing and surveillance, and secure information sharing.
DIANA’s Managing Director, Professor Deeph Chana, expressed his excitement about this significant development. He emphasized the importance of identifying, developing, and deploying dual-use technologies to address the myriad challenges we face. DIANA’s unique programme offers participants substantial early-stage funding, commercial advice, and the opportunity to test their ideas at world-leading facilities.
DIANA plans to collaborate with approximately 30 start-ups this year, each receiving a non-dilutive grant of 100,000 euros. There’s also the potential for additional funding of up to 300,000 euros through DIANA’s accelerator programme. With a regional office in the UK, another planned in Canada, and a hub set to open in Estonia, DIANA is expanding its reach. It also boasts a network of around 100 accelerator sites and test centres in innovation clusters across the Alliance.
Complementing DIANA’s efforts is the NATO Innovation Fund, the first multi-sovereign venture capital fund globally, set to invest 1 billion euros in start-ups developing defence and security technologies.
For more information or to apply for DIANA’s challenge call, visit the DIANA website.
