Kicking Off NATO DIANA’s 2026 Programme

Last week marked the start of DIANA’s 2026 Programme, with 16 different regional kick-offs taking place across the Alliance. These events not only kicked off the official start of DIANA innovators’ acceleration journey, but also brought together a world-class community of innovators, industry leaders, accelerator partners, and defence representatives, all eager to shape the future of the Alliance. 

The 2026 programme features DIANA’s largest cohort to date, involving 150 innovators with a clear mission: to drive innovation while helping ensure that the Alliance remains at the forefront of global defence and security challenges.

The DIANA ecosystem: an unmatched value proposition

DIANA stands as NATO’s innovation engine for new game changers, uniquely positioned to act as a ‘connector’ that brings together a wide network of accelerators, 200 test centres, and more than 600 mentors with defence, technological and commercial expertise.  

For innovators, DIANA offers much more than training and access to experts. By directly engaging with investors and military end-users, and through access to real-world operational exercises, innovators gain critical insights that help refine and scale their solutions.  

For nations and defence bodies, this ecosystem means quicker access to cutting-edge technologies that address critical defence and security challenges. 

With DIANA’s help, more than 25 innovators have already seen their technologies adopted by nations or tested in operational environments following our programme.

Kick-off event at VTT, one of the accelerator sites delivering the DIANA programme. 

Accelerating adoption

DIANA is strongly committed to driving adoption, which means that the journey for innovators within the programme is not solely about technological development, but about understanding how defence works and what it takes to develop a solution that reaches operational deployment and delivers real-world impact. 

Through the Rapid Adoption Service (RAS), DIANA also offers a streamlined pathway for military end-users to test, validate, refine and procure new technologies – shortening the time it takes to move from concept to adoption. 

For innovators, the Rapid Adoption Service provides an efficient and effective route to sell to the 32 NATO-member states and NATO bodies.   

For Allied militaries, this means they can evaluate and test new technologies in operational settings and environments, before proceeding to procurement or acquisition at scale. 

Attendees gathered at the kick-off event in Fort Krakow.

Understanding the end-user 

By embedding military expertise at every stage of the DIANA programme – from Challenge design to involvement in operational exercises  – DIANA also helps ensure that solutions coming out from the programme are not just technologically sound, but also relevant to end-users and aligned with real-world operational needs.