DIANA

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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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.