Technological businesses can sign up for NATO's DIANA accelerator programme supporting innovations in the defence sector

The North Atlantic Alliance has launched the pilot phase of its programme for funding research & development projects of start-ups and small-sized enterprises that can significantly help unlock the innovation potential in new technologies. Thanks to the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), grant funding to support dual-use technology development and demonstration is available for technology areas such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy, quantum, biotechnologies, hypersonics and space.

Those interested can now sign up for DIANA’s first three Pilot Challenges: Energy Resilience – the use of systems and subsystems to distribute reliable electricity in places where the distribution of power from remote power stations is limited in the aftermath of a natural disaster or during a crisis; Secure Information Sharing – the exploitation of technologies for reliable and secure transfer of data in a difficult environment; and Sensing and Surveillance – sensing the coastal undersea environment.

Secretary General of the SVK MOD's Service Office Peter Kozák said: “Enhancing the security of Allied countries is also based on new technologies in response to global and security challenges. Therefore, it is essential that the Ministry of Defence become a solid element of this innovation ecosystem. NATO is moving forward in the field of defence innovations, thereby creating space for our companies, which, backed by us, must have the necessary willingness to assert themselves in healthy competition.”

According to Michaela Kollárová, Director of the SVK MOD's Investment Planning and Project Financing Branch and member of the DIANA Board of Directors, the security and defence sector finds itself under increasing pressure to get ready for the use of disruptive and emerging technologies (EDTs).

Any incorporated company, headquartered in a NATO member nation, whose technologies can be modified in the future for the needs of the armed forces and the security sector is eligible to participate in the DIANA accelerator programme. Companies can submit their innovative solutions under the call for proposals targeting DIANA's three focus areas by 25 August 2023. Of all the applicants, approx. 30 will receive a grant of up to 100,000 euros and will participate in the first phase of the programme, where they along with other innovators will continue to work on the development of their technological solutions at the test centres for approx. 6 months. At the end of the first phase, selected companies will be invited to participate in the second phase of the programme and will be offered an additional grant of up to 300,000 euros.

For more information on DIANA, go to: 

Severoatlantický akcelerátor pre obranné inovácie - DIANA

Diana NATO

You can also contact us at the MOD's Investment Planning and Project Financing Branch by phone or email:

+421 960 317 355, +421 960 317 357, +421 960 303 163

mimorozpoctove.zdroje@mod.gov.sk