Author: Alexandre Palma
NATO Allies are launching a ground-breaking initiative to sharpen the Alliance’s technological edge. On Thursday (7 April 2022), Allied foreign ministers approved the Charter of the Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic – or DIANA.
“This fund is unique,” the Secretary-General said, “with a 15-year timeframe, the NATO Innovation Fund will help bring to life those nascent technologies that have the power to transform our security in the decades to come, strengthening the Alliance’s innovation ecosystem and bolstering the security of our one billion citizens.” The Fund will invest 1 billion euros in early-stage start-ups and other venture capital funds developing dual-use emerging technologies of priority to NATO. These include artificial intelligence; big-data processing; quantum-enabled technologies; autonomy; biotechnology and human enhancement; novel materials; energy; propulsion and space.
The Fund will complement NATO’s Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic – or DIANA – which will support developing and adapting dual-use emerging technologies to critical security and defense challenges. There has also been significant progress for DIANA at the 2022 Madrid Summit where Allies agreed that innovators participating in DIANA’s programs will have access to a network of more than 9 Accelerator Sites and more than 63 Test Centers across Europe and North America.
(Source: www.nato.int)
In Portugal:
Portugal will be the home of two structures of the Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), an unprecedented initiative by NATO to create a network that brings the defense sector closer to the private sector and academia and thereby boosting the Alliance’s technological leadership.
Alfeite’s Arsenal has been selected to integrate NATO’s Innovation Accelerator network, while the Navy Operational Experimentation Center (CEOM) in Troia has been selected as a testing center for the development and testing of unmanned vehicles.
The fact that Portugal welcomes these two structures is an opportunity for the integration of the country into a network of international innovation, promoting the development of emerging and disruptive technologies of dual use, civil and military, thus contributing to the strengthening of the defense economy.
(Source: www.iddportugal.pt)