“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 put 1 billion euros into early-stage startups and other venture capital firms creating cutting-edge technology with dual uses that are important to NATO. These include biotechnology and human enhancement, autonomy, large data processing, quantum-enabled technologies, innovative materials, energy, propulsion, and space.
The Fund will work in tandem with NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, or DIANA, to assist the creation and application of dual-use emerging technologies to significant security and defence concerns. The Allies’ agreement that innovators participating in DIANA’s initiatives will have access to a network of more than 63 Test Centers and more than 9 Accelerator Sites throughout Europe and North America is another big step forward for DIANA since the 2022 Madrid Summit.
The 22 Allied countries: Belgium; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Iceland; Italy; Latvia; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Slovakia; Spain; Türkiye; United Kingdom.