NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) has announced the successful innovators in 2024’s competitive challenges. These firms – seven of whom are Canadian – will be joining NATO DIANA’s 2025 cohort of innovators. Challenges focused on several innovation areas in security and defence, including data and information security, critical infrastructure and logistics, and human health and performance.

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NATO EDGE 2024 — At a time when leaders from NATO countries and their allies are striving to share more data more securely, the Pentagon and the Canadian Armed Forces announced that they achieved federated identity, credential and access management (ICAM) connection between their armed forces in a joint pilot program. 

It’s a relatively small step, but Ross Ermel, the defense chief digital officer for the Canadian Armed Forces said this week that when he and his team “took this to the warfighting use case — I’ll just keep it general for now — and they realized what they could do now that they could log on and share, eyes were open. It was a light bulb moment.”

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The NATO DIANA North American headquarters opened in Halifax Wednesday, marking a milestone moment for security and defence innovation advancement.

“DIANA is committed to solving the world’s most complex security, defence and resilience problems through technological innovation,” said Deeph Chana, managing director of DIANA.

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Members of the Five Eyes (FVEY) security partnership, Canada, the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), Australia, and New Zealand (N.Z.), work together to support each other’s national and international security interests. Recent changes to the maritime security environment caused by technological advances in AI, robotics, sensors, and weaponry, as well as growing great power competition, have prompted the navies of each FVEY state to invest in maritime autonomous systems (MAS).

Autonomous systems are those that operate using artificial intelligence and do not require human crews or physical intervention. Their level of autonomy ranges from fully autonomous to remote-controlled. Autonomous vessels and vehicles can also be optionally-crewed, operating with or without a complement of sailors. The adoption of MAS, including uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) and uncrewed undersea vehicles (UUVs), will improve the capabilities of FVEY navies by reducing operator errors, risk to human life, and costs associated with naval operations while speeding up reaction times, complicating enemy targeting, and allowing navies to pivot to more distributed maritime operations.

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Canada definitely plans to move forward with the purchase of new submarines, the federal government announced on the margins of the NATO Summit on Wednesday.

Up to now, the government has spoken only about the possibility of replacing the aging Victoria-class boats. But in the face of mounting criticism of Canada's defence spending by allies — notably the United States — Ottawa has given the proposal the green light.

A senior government official, speaking on background, said they could not confirm how much the plan will cost, how many boats will be purchased or when they will arrive.

The submarine construction program will be separate from the National Shipbuilding Strategy because no shipyards in Canada currently have the capacity or technology to build sophisticated sub-surface vessels.

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Today, the Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence; the Honourable Bardish Chagger, Member of Parliament for Waterloo; Andy Fillmore, Member of Parliament for Halifax; and Darren Fisher, Member of Parliament for Dartmouth—Cole Harbour congratulated two Canadian accelerators and 13 test centres that have joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) network.

As announced in 2022, NATO DIANA is coming to Canada, with its North American Regional Office finding a home in Halifax.

The NATO DIANA Regional Office in Canada is expected to bring  tangible benefits to Canadian industry and the defence technology sector. With a thriving innovation ecosystem, sustaining more than 300 entrepreneurial science and technology start-ups, the Halifax Regional Municipality is also home to several major universities and research centres as well as Canada’s Atlantic naval fleet.

NATO DIANA unites the best and brightest innovators from across the Alliance and provides deep tech and dual-use innovators with access to NATO resources.

DIANA focuses on deep tech and dual-use technologies that have both civilian and military uses.  It will help facilitate cooperation between military operators and the Alliance’s start-ups, scientific researchers, and technology companies to help NATO maintain its technological edge over the threats posed by emerging technologies.

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It’s hard to find a place that can serve as both a training ground for military ships and aircraft, and as a home to sensitive wildlife. With the help of Defence Research and Development Canada, the ocean can more safely be both. This capability was exemplified during Exercise CUTLASS FURY 2023, where defence scientists took to the seas to improve the safety of marine mammals.

Exercise CUTLASS FURY is a biennial NATO exercise that takes place in the North Atlantic, off the coast of Nova Scotia. The exercise is an opportunity for NATO Allies to gather and put their skills to the test in a simulated tactical marine environment. This year, the exercise ran from September 10 to 22.

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On Monday, 19 June, NATO DIANA launched its first three pilot challenges. Applications are now open to world-class innovators who have exceptional ideas to help solve dual-use critical defence and security problems.

Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA)

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DIANA’s Pilot Challenge call focuses on the following three areas:

Energy Resilience: 

In an uncertain and changing world, there is an urgent need for more reliable, resilient, and efficient energy solutions – particularly in the aftermath of natural disasters or in conflict zones. Climate change and its consequences will only make that need greater.

For this challenge, DIANA is therefore seeking technology solutions that enable the modular design of microgrids that can meet supply demands reliably. Of interest are technologies and systems that are capable of scaling and that are interoperable with other similar systems; renewable power generation; power storage; hardware and software for adaptive and intelligent power conditioning and management; and technologies for the detection and protection of the physical system and components from malicious cyber-attack.

Download the Problem Statement here 

Secure Information Sharing:

By secure information sharing, we typically mean the ability to exchange documents and other static content with others safely, without the risk of interference by malicious actors. However, while protecting document-based information transfer in an office environment is important, it is a simpler task than securing multiple forms of information flow when working in the field or on the move, as is often the case with first-responders, peacekeeping forces and the military.

For this challenge, DIANA is looking for ways of creating a secure and trusted information environment – with the emphasis on live data streams such as those used to provide near real-time video, augmented reality feeds, digital radio and more. Of particular interest are hardware and software solutions that operate over open networks and that can function in ‘austere’ or ‘disadvantaged’ environments.

Download the Problem Statement here 

Sensing and Surveillance:

Coastal waters are vital to the economic and security interests of the countries whose borders they touch, and critical to all who rely on them for commerce, transportation, recreation, and food, for example. Yet, even today, our understanding of the undersea environment is limited – not least because many standard methods of observation don’t work well underwater and because the marine environment is difficult to access and to work in for extended periods.

For this challenge, DIANA is seeking components and systems for sensing and information gathering in subsurface coastal zones. Applications of interest might include, but are not limited to, novel techniques and/or advanced capabilities for seafloor mapping, undersea infrastructure monitoring, manmade object and marine-life tracking, climate-change-effects sensing, and patterns-of-life visualisations.

Download the Problem Statement here

The call for proposals will be open until 25 August 2023.  In Phase one of the DIANA accelerator program, approximately 30 innovators will receive grant funding of $150,000 CAD/ € 100,000 EUR starting in late 2023. At the end of Phase One, a smaller number of companies will be offered an additional grant of up to $450,000 CAD/ € 300,000 EUR and be invited to participate in Phase Two of the accelerator programme called ‘Scale’. During this second six months, companies will focus on demonstrating their technological solution, developing transition strategies, and working with investors and end users to identify pathways to adoption.

Once DIANA achieves full operating capability in 2025, DIANA will run up to ten challenge programmes per year and have the capacity to interact with hundreds of innovators each year.

The application portal can be accessed via DIANA’s official website.

Through the web link and the DIANA LinkedIn page, you can also find additional information related to the initiative and stay notified on all of DIANA’s publications and updates.

The Department of National Defence is looking forward to seeing our Canadian Innovator Community actively participating in the NATO DIANA program and wishes you luck in this process. 

Note – any questions related to DIANA challenges or eligibility should be directed to NATO DIANA via DIANA’s official website, linked here. 

In June, 2021, at the NATO Annual Summit, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced the creation of DIANA – the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic. In April 2022, NATO member foreign ministers approved DIANA’s charter along with the creation of a 1 billion euro innovation fund.

According to NATO, the program “provides dual-use innovators in NATO countries with funding and a fast track to adapt their solutions for defence and security needs.” “Dual-use” refers to the development or adaptation of civilian software and technology for defence and security purposes. The goal of DIANA is to provide funding and resources that can help researchers and start-ups accelerate their work. 

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The NATO Communication and Information (NCI) Agency is transitioning to the new NCI Agency online eProcurement tool – Neo, in order to facilitate the operationalization of the 2019 BOA Procedure revision. As such, the NCIA is kindly requesting all the companies within the Alliance nations which have an existing BOA with NCIA to apply for the new BOA.   To apply for the new BOA, the Canadian companies first need to register in Neo via the NCI Agency website, following the procedures indicated in the following link: https://lnkd.in/gXAwJa7S  

The Canadian companies that already hold a BOA have until 30 June 2023 to register in Neo and submit their new BOA application. Provided these conditions are met, the existing BOA for all Canadian companies will remain valid until the new BOA is signed. The current BOA Holders who do not apply for the new BOA will have their BOAs de-activated, but can re-apply for the BOA Programme at any time as per the general procedures.   The terms and conditions applicable to the BOAs can be found under the BOA section of the NCI Agency’s website. https://lnkd.in/gHe76PHS

Defence Minister Anita Anand announced Friday a proposal to establish an innovation hub in Halifax for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

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The Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program and Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), on behalf of Canada, will be hosting the Fall 2021 NATO Innovation Challenge – The invisible threat: Countering cognitive warfare. The theme of this pitch-style event is understanding and protecting the cognitive domain.

NATO is looking for tools and measures to identify, assess and protect against attacks on NATO forces and NATO Allies in the cognitive domain.

Successful innovators will pitch their best solutions and tools to a panel of experts from NATO countries.

On top of international exposure and cash prizes for the best solutions, there will be special recognition for the top “Made in Canada” solution. In order to be considered for the additional Canadian prize, a subsequent eligibility criteria will be applied. For more information on eligibility, visit the IDEaS Web site.

Tap into an engaged audience that could lead to meaningful contacts with the international community!

To apply, visit the NATO Innovation Challenge Page.

Submit your entry by Thursday, October 21, 2021.

The IDEaS Team