10 Firms Win NATO DIANA Funding Boost
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Ten companies across Europe and North America will each receive a funding boost of up to €300,000 after they were shortlisted by a NATO programme set up to encourage innovation in the defence industry.
They have been selected from a group of 44 firms initially singled out in November 2023 by the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) programme to move into Phase Two of the initiative, it was announced in a statement yesterday (Tuesday). Bids had been invited in three challenge areas: energy resilience; sensing and surveillance; and secure information sharing.
During the selection process the successful firms were judged against a matrix of key criteria which included their products' commercial viability, their technological potential, and their relevance to end-users.
The technologies involved include quantum sensing and computing devices, laser communications, protection of Critical Undersea Infrastructure (CUI), photonic circuitry, self-healing energy grids, drone seabed mapping, smart antennae and data and privacy protection.
As well as the additional cash, the firms will be offered tailored advice and programming aimed at enhancing the commercialisation of their products and their chances of successfully bringing to market products which are adopted by military users across the alliance and potentially beyond.
Professor Deeph Chana, Managing Director of DIANA, commented: “To solve complex security and resilience problems, we need an ecosystem of creative, collaborative innovators willing to bring their talent and expertise to bear. These ten innovators, and indeed all of our first cohort, are paving the way for a strong pipeline of innovation for Allied nations to adopt.”
And Chief Commercial Officer Adrian Dan said: “We were impressed by the dedication and quality of the innovators going through the first accelerator programme. The ten innovators moving into Phase II represent emerging technologies with high adoption potential, significant commercial viability and close alignment with Allied need."
The ten firms receiving funds announced by DIANA this week are:
- Aquark Technologies (United Kingdom)
- Astrolight (Lithuania)
- Dolphin Labs (United States)
- Ephos (Italy)
- Goldilock (United Kingdom)
- Ionate (United Kingdom)
- Lobster Robotics (Netherlands)
- Phantom Photonics (Canada)
- Revobeam (Poland)
- Secqai (United Kingdom)
During the summer the DIANA programme also announced five new challenges and received more than 2,600 applications as a result; a new long-list of winning firms will be released at the start of 2025. This time the challenge areas are: energy and power; data and information security; sensing and surveillance; human heath and performance; and critical infrastructure and logistics.
- You can find out more details on the Nato website and the Diana website