A NATO hub for technological research is set to open in Halifax by this summer.
The Barrington Street office for the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) will provide resources and funding to develop defence technologies for military and civilian use, according to a news release from the federal government.
“Today’s announcement once again underscores Halifax’s leading role in the advancement and development of innovative solutions to NATO’s most pressing defence issues. In addition to the selection of Halifax as NATO DIANA’s North American Regional Office, we continue to see how they’re supporting regional economic growth in our city and province,” says Halifax MP Andy Fillmore.
The Canadian government plans to spend $26.6 million on the Halifax office over the next six years. Another office will also open in London.
The program’s goal is to bring military authorities and the technology sector together to solve “NATO’s defence and security challenges.”
“The integration of our domestic experts with NATO’s DIANA will strengthen our capacity to develop cutting-edge solutions to the security challenges faced by Canada and our NATO Allies,” says Bill Blair, minister of national defence.
The Department of Defence says, to foster development, DIANA plans to give challenges to organizations in the tech sector and ask them to create solutions. During DIANA’s first set of competitive challenges in June 2023, Canada had the second highest rate of submissions, the government says.
Participating organizations include start-ups, tech companies and scientific researchers. They will have access to NATO resources like funding, defence expertise, investors, training and commercial advice, the release says.
So-called accelerators will provide participants with programming that will help them develop their technologies. Participants can also use test sites to conduct research and test “technologies in specialized environments,” the government says.
On Friday, the government announced that COVE, a tech company in Dartmouth, N.S., will participate as an accelerator in the program. Communitech, a company in Waterloo, Ont, will also be an accelerator.
So far, the program has 23 accelerators and 182 test sites.
Canadian test centres include:
- The Launch, Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University – St. John’s, N.L.
- ACE Climatic Aerodynamic Wind Tunnel and Core Research Facility – Ontario Tech University Canada – Oshawa, Ont.
- University of Alberta – Edmonton, Alta.
- Area X.O. – Ottawa, Ont.
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) / University of Saskatchewan – Saskatoon, Sask.
- Testing Network – Mohawk College, Sask
- Polytechnic, 3 Points in Space Media, SubZero North – Saskatoon, Sask. / Hamilton, Ont.
- Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) – Centre for Innovation and Research in Advanced Manufacturing and Materials (CIRAMM) – Calgary, Ala.
- Centre technologique en aérospatiale (CTA) – St-Hubert, Que.
- Aerospace Research Centre, National Research Council Canada – Ottawa, Ont.
- Automotive and Surface Transportation Research Centre, National Research Council Canada – Ottawa, Ont. / Boucherville, Que.
- Digital Technologies Research Centre, National Research Council Canada – Ottawa, Ont.
- Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering Research Centre, National Research Council Canada – St. John’s, N.L. / Ottawa, Ont.
- Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre, National Research Council Canada – Ottawa, Ont.
“(DIANA) will help facilitate cooperation between military operators and the Alliance’s start-ups, scientific researchers, and technology companies to help NATO maintain its technological edge over the threats posed by emerging technologies,” the Department of Defence writes in the release.
