Yesterday NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) became operational and launched its first call for proposals to solve critical defence and security challenges. 

DIANA brings together governments, industry and academia to work with start-ups and other innovators to help their ideas and businesses succeed. This year, DIANA will support the best and brightest to develop dual-use technologies to solve problems in three areas: energy resilience, sensing and surveillance, and secure information sharing.

According to a relevant announcement, participants in DIANA’s unique programme will get significant early-stage funding, commercial advice and the opportunity to test their ideas at some of the world’s leading facilities.

DIANA expects to work with around 30 start-ups this year. They will be awarded 100,000 euros each in the form of a non-dilutive grant, with the opportunity to get up to 300,000 euros later in DIANA’s accelerator program. 

DIANA has a regional office in the United Kingdom, another planned in Canada and a hub will open in Estonia. It also has a network of around 100 accelerator sites and test centres in innovation clusters across the Alliance.

DIANA is complemented by the NATO Innovation Fund, the world’s first multi-sovereign venture capital fund, which will invest 1 billion euros in start-ups developing technologies for defence and security.

Also read: DIANA | NATO sharpens technological edge with innovation initiatives – Greece’s participation