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Innovation and technology adoption

Updated: 08 July 2026

Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), drones and autonomous systems are reshaping the way that conflicts are fought and redefining the capabilities required for effective deterrence and defence. In this rapidly changing security environment, NATO must remain on the cutting edge of innovation, developing and adopting new technologies at the speed and scale needed to protect its populations, territory and forces. To that end, the Alliance is working with partners across innovation ecosystems, industry and academia to identify, test and procure new technologies and maintain NATO’s technological edge and military superiority through innovation.

Drone technology on display at the “Drone Summit 2026” testing and demonstration event at the NATO Innovation Range in Latvia (Photo by Armīns Janiks, Latvian Ministry of Defence).

Although many of the technologies that are reshaping the world today are new, the need for innovation is not. Since its founding in 1949, NATO has stayed at the forefront of technology to ensure the defence of its member countries and the success of its operations.
In recent years, NATO Allies have worked together to establish overarching strategies on emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs), such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technologies, and biotechnology and human enhancement technologies. NATO’s EDTs Strategy is helping to ensure that Allies are fostering the development and adoption of new technologies, while at the same time protecting themselves from the use of EDTs by potential adversaries and competitors.
NATO Allies are working with innovators and industry at all stages of technological development – from the initial creation and testing of new products, to the large-scale production of mature technologies, to their adoption and integration into the day-to-day operations of Allied militaries.
Through the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) and the EUR 1 billion NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), Allies are working with start-ups, tech companies and other non-traditional suppliers, helping innovators understand military requirements and develop technologies that meet Allied needs.
Through NATO’s Rapid Adoption Action Plan, Allies are substantially accelerating the pace of adoption of new technological products to help fulfil Allies’ Capability Targets and increase the production capacity of Allied defence innovation ecosystems.
NATO’s innovation activities help ensure that the additional funds invested by Allies – as part of their commitment to invest 5% of their annual GDP in defence – are being spent on the most modern defence technologies.

NATO’s strategic approach to innovation

Unleashing innovation is an important aspect of the pledge that Allies made in 2025 to invest 5% of their annual GDP in defence, including both core defence requirements and defence- and security-related investments. This builds on NATO’s recognition of innovation and EDTs as key strategic enablers over recent years.

In NATO’s 2022 Strategic Concept – which defines key challenges facing the Alliance and outlines how NATO will address them – Allies agreed to promote innovation and increase investments in new technologies to retain NATO’s interoperability and military edge. Allies will work together to adopt and integrate new technologies, cooperate with the private sector, protect their innovation ecosystems, shape standards and commit to principles of responsible use that reflect the Alliance’s democratic values and human rights. The Strategic Concept also affirms that EDTs bring both opportunities and risks, and that they are altering the character of conflict, acquiring greater strategic importance and becoming key arenas of global competition.

Prior to the adoption of the 2022 Strategic Concept, in February 2021, NATO Defence Ministers endorsed “Foster and Protect: NATO’s Coherent Implementation Strategy on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies.” This is NATO’s overarching strategy to guide its approach to EDTs and innovation ecosystem engagement. It has two main areas of focus:

fostering a coherent approach to the development and adoption of dual-use technologies (i.e., technologies that are focused on commercial markets and uses but also have defence and security applications) that will strengthen the Alliance’s technological edge, and
helping protect against the use of EDTs by hostile actors, and protect EDTs and Allied innovation ecosystems from interference and manipulation by potential adversaries and competitors.

These goals are key to ensuring NATO retains its strategic and effective dominance.

NATO’s innovation activities currently focus on nine priority technology areas:

artificial intelligence (AI)
autonomous systems
quantum technologies
biotechnology and human enhancement technologies
space
hypersonic systems
novel materials and manufacturing
energy and propulsion
next-generation communications networks

The Alliance is developing specific plans for each of these key technology areas (linked above, where a public version is available). These strategies are laying the groundwork for NATO to accelerate rapid adoption of cutting-edge technologies in support of NATO’s core tasks.

Data is a key enabler for all EDTs. NATO is bolstering its data exploitation efforts through its Framework Policy and Strategic Plan. In line with the Strategic Concept’s call to expedite the digital transformation of the Alliance, NATO has also developed an Implementation Strategy for Digital Transformation.

NATO’s Rapid Adoption Action Plan

Recognising the strategic importance of keeping up with the rate of technological change outside the Alliance, Allied Leaders endorsed NATO’s Rapid Adoption Action Plan at the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague. The Plan aims to significantly accelerate the pace at which the Alliance adopts new technological products and integrates them into Allied armed forces, within a maximum of 24 months. It provides Allies with shared objectives and best practices to improve adoption procedures, commit resources and accept risk, underpinned by NATO support. It will help Allies:

accelerate their national processes for procuring and integrating new technologies into their armed forces at the speed of relevance,
test emerging technologies and de-risk investment into new products by creating NATO standards of approval that build trust, and
ensure that defence industry and innovation stakeholders understand NATO’s defence priorities and align their activities with the military needs of the Alliance as a whole.

The NATO Innovation Scale-Up Package

To help Allies deliver on their Capability Targets at speed and scale, Allied Leaders endorsed the NATO Innovation Scale-Up Package at the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara. The Scale-Up Package helps set conditions for non-traditional suppliers to rapidly scale production for core defence requirements and defence- and security-related needs, and therefore provide Allies with more options in how they fulfil their Capability Targets. This is done through three main pillars:

Asserting Allied demand: clearly identifying the capabilities Allies need with the first public version of the NATO Aggregated Demand Signal for industry, and supporting innovation ecosystems to create credible adoption pathways for non-traditional suppliers to scale their operations,
Financing: force multiplying Allied investments through a Call to Action for private capital investments in Allied defence needs, and
Manufacturing: establishing the new NATO Engine to augment defence industrial production capacity by facilitating industry access to factories, in particular civilian ones, to help scale new technological products that match Allied needs.

NATO Front Door for Industry

The NATO Front Door for Industry is the main entry point for industry to discover the opportunities, knowledge and expertise available from NATO, enabling engagement and cooperation. The Front Door web portal is designed to give companies a single, simplified point of access to NATO procurement opportunities, innovation support mechanisms, NATO capability needs, events and an overview of the Allied innovation ecosystem.

Learn more >

Key NATO stakeholders working with innovation ecosystems

To meet the critical challenges of today and tomorrow, NATO directly engages innovator communities through initiatives and bodies designed to foster innovation and protect such efforts from potential adversaries and competitors.

Through the NATO Front Door for Industry, users can explore the Innovation Support Mechanisms page to discover programmes, funding opportunities, experimentation activities and innovation networks – as well as the ecosystem page to learn about the Alliance and connect with relevant NATO bodies.

Within NATO, there are a number of relevant stakeholders for innovation:

NATO and affiliated bodies actively working with innovation ecosystems

The Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) is a NATO agency that promotes innovation by running competitive industry challenges, asking innovators to develop deep tech, dual-use technologies to help solve critical defence and security problems.
Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is NATO’s strategic-level command leading the military adaptation of the Alliance, coordinating national efforts to ensure that NATO has the right capabilities to guarantee the freedom and security of its members.
The Science and Technology Organization (STO) is a NATO organisation that nurtures a community of more than 6,000 actively engaged scientists to support the defence and security posture of the Alliance and its partners through scientific and technological research.
The NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) is the world’s first multi-sovereign venture capital fund. Its EUR 1 billion fund provides strategic investments in start-ups developing dual-use emerging and disruptive technologies in areas that are critical to Allied security.

NATO committees with Allied representatives supporting innovation

The North Atlantic Council – NATO’s principal political decision-making body –holds technology-focused sessions where Permanent Representatives connect with executives driving technological breakthroughs.
The Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) is the senior NATO committee responsible for promoting cooperation between countries in the armaments field.
The Data and Artificial Intelligence Review Board, which includes Allied representatives from government, academia, the private sector or civil society, acts as the focal point of NATO’s efforts to govern responsible development and use of AI.
The Digital Policy Committee, the senior NATO committee responsible for spearheading NATO’s digital transformation.

Other communities and groups bring together stakeholders from the public, private and academic sectors, in particular the Transatlantic Quantum Community, where NATO Allies share expertise, exchange technical information and coordinate joint action in order to strengthen Allied quantum technology ecosystems.

Internal institutional structures support innovation, such as the NATO Innovation Board, which drives coherence among innovation activities across NATO bodies.

Wider innovation activities

NATO’s Drone Edge

Drones have fundamentally altered the character of modern warfare and become a decisive factor on the battlefield. To strengthen the Alliance’s ability to rapidly detect, identify and neutralise drones, Allies announced NATO’s Drone Edge at the 2026 Ankara Summit. This initiative will invest over USD 40 billion in counter-drone capabilities over five years. It will include a NATO counter-drone marketplace to ensure that systems are NATO-tested, NATO-compatible and available for purchase. It will also support drone pilot training, with the goal of expanding the number of drone operators in Allied armed forces by five times by the end of 2027.

NATO-Ukraine innovation cooperation

Ukraine’s technological innovation has been a key element of its defence against Russia’s war of aggression. As part of NATO’s support for Ukraine, the NATO-Ukraine Innovation Cooperation Roadmap defines shared objectives and cooperative activities in support of new technology development and adoption. Launched at the 2024 Washington Summit, the Roadmap focuses both on meeting urgent requirements and ensuring long-term cooperation, recognising that Ukraine’s ability to rapidly adopt innovative technologies and integrate them with traditional warfighting is a fundamental pillar of its ability to counter Russia’s conventional military advantages in armour, artillery and manpower, as well as in the cyber and hybrid domains.

The NATO-Ukraine Innovation Cooperation Roadmap has helped drive cooperative activities between NATO and Ukraine, such as the Ukraine-NATO Innovation, Technology and Engineering (UNITE) – Brave NATO programme, launched in November 2025. UNITE – Brave NATO is a co-funded innovation programme between NATO and Ukraine, dedicating up to EUR 50 million to help develop cutting-edge technologies that meet urgent battlefield requirements. NATO’s portion of the funding is provided through the Comprehensive Assistance Package (CAP) for Ukraine.

Cooperation with the defence industry

In addition to its cooperation with innovators and technology companies, NATO also works closely with more traditional defence industry suppliers. Engagement with all industry, traditional and non-traditional alike, is important to growing the Alliance’s overall defence industrial production capacity. Other forms of industry engagement include initiatives to aggregate demand from Allies, so that industry can make long-term production plans, address industrial challenges with raw materials and supply chains, and increase standardization of NATO equipment, increasing interoperability among Allied armed forces. Ultimately, NATO’s cooperation with both innovators and industry helps ensure that Allies are spending the money under their 5% of GDP defence investment commitment on the right equipment, tools and new technologies needed to keep the Alliance strong.

Learn more: Increasing defence industrial production

Evolution

NATO has been supporting innovation, both in Allied armed forces and in its own capabilities, since the Alliance was founded in 1949. However, the accelerating pace of emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) is creating rapid and large-scale changes – not only in everyday life, but also in security and defence. The timeline below lays out milestones in the development of NATO’s EDT-related policies.

December 2019 – NATO Leaders agree an Emerging and Disruptive Technology Implementation Roadmap with seven original EDT areas: data, AI, autonomy, quantum technologies, biotechnology and human enhancement technologies, hypersonic technologies and space. The purpose of this roadmap is to help structure NATO’s work across key technology areas and enable Allies to consider the implications of these technologies, for instance for deterrence and defence, and capability development.

December 2019 – NATO Leaders declare space to be a fifth operational domain, alongside air, land, maritime and cyberspace. This follows the adoption of NATO’s overarching Space Policy, which was agreed by Allied Defence Ministers in June 2019.

December 2019 – NATO Leaders ask Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to lead a forward-looking reflection process to strengthen NATO both militarily and politically and to adopt a more global approach for the Alliance. Over the subsequent months, this takes shape as the NATO 2030 initiative.

June 2020 – Following consultation with Allied parliamentarians, civil society, public and private sector experts, and young leaders, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg lays out his priorities for NATO 2030. This includes a focus on innovation and critical technologies to make sure that the Alliance remains ready to face tomorrow’s challenges. The Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) and the NATO Innovation Fund begin to take shape as key pillars of the NATO 2030 agenda.

July 2020 – The Secretary General establishes the first NATO Advisory Group on EDTs. The group consists of 12 external experts from the private sector and academia, from countries across the Alliance. These experts provide advice to NATO on the adoption of new technologies and other aspects of innovation, including education, financing and innovation ecosystems.

September 2020 – The 2020-2022 NATO Advisory Group on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies presents recommendations to the NATO Innovation Board, including on innovative technologies that NATO should be pursuing as a priority.

February 2021 – NATO Defence Ministers endorse NATO’s Coherent Implementation Strategy on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, with a focus on the seven EDT areas from the 2019 EDT Implementation Roadmap.

March 2021 – The NATO Advisory Group on EDTs publishes its first annual report (for the year 2020), providing four key recommendations for NATO: improve technology literacy throughout the Organization; establish a network of Innovation Centres; design and facilitate new financing mechanisms for innovation with private sector entities, both small and large; and create innovation partnership initiatives with external EDT stakeholders from industry and academia.

June 2021 – At the 2021 Brussels Summit, NATO Leaders agree the NATO 2030 agenda to ensure the Alliance can face the challenges of today and tomorrow, including by sharpening NATO’s technological edge. As part of the NATO 2030 agenda, they also agree to launch DIANA and to establish the NATO Innovation Fund.

October 2021 – NATO Defence Ministers endorse NATO’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy, setting out how the Alliance aims to adapt AI to meet operational requirements, and to accelerate and mainstream the secure and trustworthy integration of AI across a range of Alliance capabilities. Ministers also endorse the Data Exploitation Framework Policy. Seventeen Allies sign up to develop the framework for the NATO Innovation Fund, and to establish how it will work in practice.

February 2022 – NATO Defence Ministers endorse the first Annual Report on Innovation and EDTs, defining new activities to enhance NATO’s technological readiness, including by adding two new EDT areas: novel materials and manufacturing, as well as energy and propulsion.

April 2022 – NATO Foreign Ministers endorse the charter for DIANA, which outlines its mission and strategy; legal authorities; financial mechanism; governance; and the regional offices, accelerator sites and test centres that will make up its initial footprint. Foreign Ministers from 21 Allies agree the framework for the NATO Innovation Fund.

April 2022 – The NATO Advisory Group on EDTs delivers its second annual report (for the year 2021), examining three critical, ongoing work strands aimed at enabling NATO and Allies to adopt new technologies at pace and maintain a technological edge: DIANA, the NATO Innovation Fund and the Human Capital Innovation Policy (which contains recommendations for NATO on how to attract, retain and develop talented employees with technical skills and innovation mindsets).

June 2022 – At the 2022 Madrid Summit, leaders from 22 Allied countries commit to participating in the NATO Innovation Fund. (Finland and Sweden became the 23rd and 24th participating countries following their accessions to NATO in April 2023 and March 2024 respectively.) Separately, NATO Leaders unveil DIANA’s updated initial footprint of test centres and accelerator sites across the Alliance.

October 2022 – NATO Defence Ministers endorse NATO’s Autonomy Implementation Plan and the establishment of NATO’s Data and Artificial Intelligence Review Board. The Data and Artificial Intelligence Review Board serves to operationalise NATO’s Principles of Responsible Use of AI, as set out in NATO’s AI Strategy. The Autonomy Implementation Plan drives a coherent approach to NATO’s autonomy protection and development efforts in line with the Alliance’s norms, values and commitment to international law.

February 2023 – NATO Defence Ministers endorse the second Annual Report on Innovation and EDTs, which outlines NATO’s approach to fostering and protecting EDTs in 2023. The Report adds next-generation communications networks as a new EDT area and determines that data has been sufficiently mainstreamed into NATO lines of effort, including data exploitation and digital transformation, to no longer be considered a standalone EDT area.

February 2023 – NATO’s Data and Artificial Intelligence Review Board (DARB) meets for the first time to start the development of a user-friendly Responsible AI certification standard.

February 2023 – NATO announces plans to establish the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) initiative to enhance space-based surveillance and intelligence for the Alliance, which will improve situational awareness and decision-making processes.

March 2023 – DIANA opens its first regional office, at the Imperial College London Innovation Hub in London, United Kingdom.

June 2023 – DIANA launches its first three pilot challenge programmes, inviting innovators to apply to its programmes.

July-August 2023 – The NATO Innovation Fund appoints the investment team that will manage the EUR 1 billion venture capital fund, and confirms the participation of 23 NATO Allies as Limited Partners (becoming 24 when Sweden joins the Alliance in March 2024).

November 2023 – Allied Foreign Ministers approve NATO’s Quantum Technologies Strategy.

November 2023 – DIANA announces its first cohort of innovators, having selected 44 companies from over 1,300 applicants to join its accelerator programme.

March 2024 – DIANA doubles the size of its network of accelerator sites and test centres. DIANA’s network will now comprise 23 accelerator sites (up from 11) and 182 test centres (up from 90) in 28 Allied countries, augmenting DIANA’s capacity to support innovators from across the Alliance as they develop their technologies.

April 2024 – NATO Defence Ministers endorse NATO’s Biotechnology and Human Enhancement Technologies Strategy.

July 2024 – At the 2024 Washington Summit, Allied Leaders endorse NATO's revised Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy, which builds on the AI Strategy published in 2021 and takes account of recent advances in AI technologies, such as generative AI and AI-enabled information tools.

July 2024 – The NATO 2024 EDT Annual Report (covering 2023-2024) sets the direction for the Alliance to develop a “NATO Rapid Adoption Action Plan” in time for the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague.

July 2024 – At a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council during the 2024 Washington Summit, NATO and Ukraine launch new joint activities to support Ukraine’s self-defence through the first NATO-Ukraine Innovation Cooperation Roadmap.

June 2025 – At the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, Allied Leaders endorse NATO’s Rapid Adoption Action Plan to accelerate the pace at which the Alliance adopts new technologies and increase the production capacity of Allied innovation ecosystems.

June 2025 – At the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, six NATO Allies (Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands and Sweden) sign a Letter of Intent to establish the NATO Innovation Ranges network.

November 2025 – During Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska’s visit to Kyiv, NATO launches the UNITE – Brave NATO programme with Ukraine, dedicating up to EUR 50 million to joint innovation competitions between NATO and Ukraine.

December 2025 – NATO’s Innovation Range for future connectivity in Finland launches the first NATO Innovation Range event, a technology demonstration in support of NATO Allied Land Command (LANDCOM).

March 2026 – NATO and Ukraine launch the interactive UNITE – Brave NATO web portal and lay out the steps for industry to participate in the first innovation competition, which is providing contract awards of EUR 10 million to meet urgent air defence and counter-uncrewed aerial system (UAS) challenges.

March 2026 – NATO’s Innovation Range for uncrewed systems in Latvia launches its first Testing, Evaluation, Validation and Verification (TEVV) campaign.

July 2026 – At the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara, Allied Leaders endorse the NATO Innovation Scale-Up Package, which includes the first public demand signal to industry and innovation ecosystems across the Alliance; a Call to Action to private capital providers; and the launch of the NATO Engine. They also launch NATO’s Drone Edge to expand counter-drone capabilities.

July 2026 – NATO launches the pilot Innovative Solutions Catalogue, listing relevant available and scalable new technological products for Allies to consider as they procure capabilities.