DIANA, NATO’s innovation accelerator, attracts cutting-edge ideas from across the Alliance
DIANA, the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, has concluded its pilot challenge call with overwhelming interest, receiving proposals from more than 1,200 applicants. The initiative, backed by NATO, aims to stimulate innovation in key areas like energy resilience, sensing and surveillance, and secure information sharing. The applicants, many of whom are small start-ups, are competing for grants amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros. A panel of experts from NATO and industry will evaluate the proposals, and the first grants are expected to be issued by the end of the year. According to DIANA’s Managing Director, Professor Deeph Chana, the response to the pilot challenge validates the hard work of the DIANA team and underscores the wealth of talent within the Alliance. Once fully operational in 2025, DIANA plans to run multiple challenges annually and collaborate with hundreds of innovators through its network of accelerator sites and test centers.