NATO launches €1B Innovation Fund

On the last working day of the 2021-22 financial year NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, and Leaders and Ministers from 22 member countries launched NATO’s Innovation Fund, the world’s first multi-sovereign venture capital fund.

The €1 billion Fund will complement NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) which will support the development and adaptation of dual-use emerging technologies to critical security and defence challenges.

It isn’t clear yet whether Australian companies will have access to money from either Fund or can be a partner of companies and research institutions in member countries working on joint projects. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended the NATO Summit in Madrid at which the new Innovation Fund was launched.

“This fund is unique”, said Secretary General Stoltenberg. “With a 15-year timeframe, the NATO Innovation Fund will help bring to life those nascent technologies that have the power to transform our security in the decades to come, strengthening the Alliance’s innovation ecosystem and bolstering the security of our one billion citizens.”

The Fund will invest €1 billion in early-stage start-ups and other venture capital funds developing dual-use emerging technologies of priority to NATO. These include: artificial intelligence; big-data processing; quantum-enabled technologies; autonomy; biotechnology and human enhancement; novel materials; energy; propulsion and space.

“Maintaining our technological edge has helped to keep our Alliance strong and our nations safe for more than seventy years,” Secretary General Stoltenberg added.”But today, nations that do not share our values, like Russia and China, are challenging that lead. In everything from Artificial Intelligence to space technologies. It is essential that we do everything in our power to remain at the forefront of innovation and technology.

“This Fund, alongside DIANA, NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, will help to do just that.”

There has also been significant progress for DIANA at the 2022 Madrid Summit where Allies agreed that innovators participating in DIANA’s programs will have access to a network of more than 9 Accelerator Sites and more than 63 Test Centres across Europe and North America.

The 22 NATO members participating in the new Innovation Fund are: Belgium; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Iceland; Italy; Latvia; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Slovakia; Spain; Turkey; United Kingdom.