Kick-off of New International Cohort at NATO DIANA Accelerator Brainport
On Thursday 21 January, the official kick-off for the second batch of participants in the NATO Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) at The Gate Brainport Eindhoven took place at the Major General De Ruyter van Steveninck Barracks in Oirschot. Twelve innovative companies from various NATO countries are starting an intensive accelerator programme here aimed at accelerating groundbreaking dual-use technologies.
DIANA stimulates the development of innovations that have both civil and military applications and contribute to the security of NATO countries. Start-ups, scale-ups and innovative SMEs are working on solutions to current defence and security issues within the programme. These include technologies such as new-generation computer chips, sensors that can detect both roadside bombs and gas leaks, homomorphic encryption and photonic chips.
Strict selection, international cooperation
Every year, innovators from all NATO countries can apply for DIANA. After a strict selection procedure, they are linked to one of the sixteen NATO accelerators worldwide. In Brainport Eindhoven, participants follow a six-month programme in which they further develop their technology, build their business and gain unique access to defence partners, test facilities and an international network.
The twelve innovators selected for this cohort are:
- Vidoc Security Lab (Poland)
- Belfort Labs BV (Belgium)
- VISS (Germany)
- Tightbeam Photonics Inc. (Canada)
- Celare Quantum Communications (Denmark)
- Pan Galactic Developments Ltd (United Kingdom)
- C2GRID OÜ (Estonia)
- EXENTECH Savunma Medikal Havacılık Bilişim Ltd.Şti. (Turkey)
- Aktiver LLC (United States)
- PERF DRONE SYSTEMS PROSTA SPÓŁKA AKCYJNA (Poland)
- ODYSSEUS Space (Luxembourg)
- FASMETRICS SA (Greece)
Worldwide, 150 innovators are now participating in DIANA, spread across 16 accelerators and with access to 180 test centres.
Brainport as an international hotspot for dual-use innovation
The NATO DIANA Accelerator The Gate Brainport is run by the Brabant Development Agency (BOM) and Eindhoven University of Technology, under the banner of The Gate and Brainport Development. The accelerator is a direct result of the collaboration within Brainport Innovation & Technology for Security (BITS).
There are two DIANA test centres in the Netherlands: the Safety & Security Campus / Robotics & AI Systems (RAS) in Oirschot and the Ministry of Defence's Fieldlab SmartBase in Ede. Here, innovators can carry out high-tech experiments. Successful solutions can ultimately be adopted by one or more NATO countries or by NATO itself.
Inspiring start to the programme
The kick-off week was all about getting acquainted, delving deeper into the Dutch defence landscape and intensive collaboration. During workshops, training sessions and Dragon's Den-style pitch sessions, the teams worked on concrete use cases and refined their propositions.
The official kick-off on Thursday featured inspiring contributions, including a speech by General Gert-Jan Kooij, who took the innovators on a journey through the operational reality of defence and called for collaboration and decisiveness.
With an energetic and promising kick-off, the foundation has been laid for an intensive and impactful programme. Brainport Eindhoven looks forward to the further development of these innovations and their contribution to security, technology and international cooperation.
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