NATO Defence Innovation Accelerator North Atlantic Aims to Promote Dual-Use Innovation, DIANA Chief of Staff Says

Dimitrina Solakova

DIANA Chief of Staff Moritz Zimmermann speaking at a conference on innovation in defence industry, Sofia, Nov. 16, 2023 (BTA Photo)

Sofia,

16.11.2023 11:34

(BTA)

The NATO Defence Innovation Accelerator North Atlantic (DIANA) has just started its activities aimed at promoting dual-use innovation by startups, DIANA Chief of Staff Moritz Zimmermann told a conference on innovation in defence industry held here Thursday. The event was organized by the Prof Tsvetan Lazarov Bulgarian Defense Institute, a member of the DIANA network in Bulgaria.

"We believe that, from DIANA's point of view, good understanding and use of technology can help us handle the challenges of both the civil and military areas," he said.

Zimmermann will visit the Big Data for Smart Society Institute (GATE) with the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, which since 2022 has been a NATO testing centre in the field of big data and AI. He will get acquainted with the high-tech structure of GATE, which the institute will use to provide a series of testing and verification services, covering various levels of technological responsibility towards the established European standards.

As part of the DIANA network (acceleration and testing centres that support finding solutions to technologies of critical importance to NATO security based on cooperation between the industry, startups, and scientific circles), GATE will welcome innovators from across the Alliance who will test their projects to get assessment, validation, and verification.

Thursday's conference was also attended by deputy ministers of defence and of innovation and growth. Deputy Minister of Innovation Georgi Angelov said that the partnership between his ministry and the Defence Ministry has been very active and regular in the last months.

/RY/