NATO Deputy Secretary General opens conference on Emerging and Disruptive Technology
NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană and the NATO Chief Scientist Dr Bryan Wells opened the 14th NATO Operations Research and Analysis Conference. The event, organised jointly by the NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO) and Allied Command Transformation (ACT), took place virtually on 5-6 October 2020, and had as its theme Emerging and Disruptive Technology (EDT).
The Conference attracted over 400 participants, from 21 NATO Allies and seven partner nations, and dealt with topics ranging from cyber and autonomy, through strategic analysis and artificial intelligence, to big data and combat modelling.
NATO Deputy Secretary General said “NATO’s Operational Research and Analysis community plays a vital role in assisting Nations and NATO in understanding the political and military implications of emerging and disruptive technologies. The experts that are brought together demonstrate the power of NATO’s network of scientists”.
The Conference brought together analysts from national defence analysis and research organisations, centres of excellence, academia, industry, and NATO commands and agencies. The analysts focused on ways that new EDTs will improve decision-making, how the community can assess the impact of EDTs on military operations and looked at best practices and new developments for their own work.