GIM HAND-PICKED FOR NATO DIANA’S FIRST CHALLENGE PROGRAM

GIM Robotics is among the pioneering innovators entering NATO DIANA’s first Challenge programme

DIANA, the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, received proposals from over 1,300 applicants as part of its pilot challenge call to innovators and entrepreneurs. DIANA’s first challenges focused on three priorities: energy resilience; sensing and surveillance; and secure information sharing. Today, 30 November 2023, DIANA announced the names of the first cohort of selected 44 companies based on an extremely competitive selection process.

A key part of NATO’s response to the changing world needs to be about innovation: identifying, developing, and deploying dual-use emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) which can help NATO address the myriad challenges we all face. Significantly, the days in which disruptive innovations are largely driven by governments are over; now the civilian private sector is often what pushes the boundaries of technological feasibility.

What’s unique about DIANA is the sheer breadth and scale, with 31 nations pulling together. DIANA will be working with the NATO Innovation Fund – the world’s first multinational sovereign wealth fund with a projected investment budget of $1 billion. DIANA will work directly with leading innovators and entrepreneurs – from early-stage start-ups to more mature companies – supporting the success of their businesses, giving them access to testing environments, connecting them to defence experts and providing grant funding. 

The selected innovators will start in DIANA’s accelerator programme, giving them access to experts from across the Alliance who can help them develop their technological solutions. With its abundance of world-class research facilities, countless cutting-edge start-ups, and mature investor base, DIANA has the potential to become a vital platform for innovation.

By convening and supporting a new ‘alliance of innovators and entrepreneurs’, NATO believes that DIANA can equip it with the tools it needs to maintain peace and security – disrupting the old-fashioned view of defence, helping to mitigate and prevent future conflicts, and unleashing some of the world’s best minds on some of the world’s most complex and pressing problems.

GIM Robotics supports the dual-use approach

We are proud to be among the few DIANA pilot challenge applicants! Our main objective is to further develop our core solutions, inherently suitable for dual-use purposes, to comply with relevant NATO standards. We are introducing an affordable localization solution for armoured vehicles in GNSS-compromised environments. “We expect the DIANA Accelerator program to provide us valuable coaching and access to testing facilities, allowing us to develop the solution that our customers desire.” – Tatu Lyytinen, GIM Robotics.

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More information:

Contact: Tatu Lyytinen, GIM Robotics

News (in Finnish): Suomalaisfirma avaa portteja Nato-markkinoille – Tällainen on GIM Robotics, jonka paikkatieto erottui 1 300 yrityksen joukosta Naton ideakilpailussa.