NATO's new Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, for which Halifax is bidding to be the North American host city, is seeking applicants for a trio of innovation challenges for sensor and surveillance tech, secure communications and energy resilience.

Called DIANA for short, the accelerator is meant to promote cooperation between the defence sector and the startup economy. Instead of focusing on military technology, it will work with companies in spaces like artificial intelligence, big data, quantum computing, biotech and advanced material. The winners of the three Pilot Challenges will receive access to mentorship, non-dilutive funding and testing facilities.

The competitions will be divided into two stages, with the first phase of each lasting six months and offering up to €100,000 or C$144,000 of funding, and the second phase offering up to triple that amount.

NATO has not yet accepted the Halifax bid. But a potential office in the city would work closely with DIANA’s European Regional Office in London and coordinate the work of accelerators and test centres throughout North America.

“As a completely new initiative this will be our pilot year and the team cannot wait to onboard our first cohorts and to establish, together with you, a thriving DIANA community and ecosystem over the coming years,” wrote Managing Director Deeph Chana on the DIANA website.

“As founding partners in this ecosystem, we will need your inspiration, insight, agility and patience as we lean how best to develop DIANA, experimenting with various processes and systems and iterating how we do things.”

The call for applications comes the week after the Halifax-based Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship, or COVE, announced it had extended an existing, 2021 memorandum of understanding with the German government, a powerful voice in NATO, to collaborate on research and development work.

COVE Chief Executive Melanie Nadeau has taken a leading role in calling for DIANA to come to Halifax.

“The Halifax region is home to Canadian Armed Forces, private, public, and post-secondary organizations driving research, development, and commercialization,” she said previously. “Halifax has everything innovators and operational end users need to foster a transatlantic ecosystem supporting dual-use ground-breaking innovation in deep technologies.”

You can learn more about the DIANA Pilot Challenges and apply here. The deadline is Aug. 25.