A new map of NATO defence innovation accelerators within the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) programme has been announced. According to it, the AGH University of Science and Technology (AGH) in Krakow and the Krakow Technology Park (KPT) will jointly lead the Polish branch of the NATO defence innovation accelerator, the Krakow DIANA Accelerator.

The Krakow DIANA Accelerator’s main areas of activity will be to support the implementation of acceleration programmes in technological solutions needed to ensure the security and defence of all NATO allied countries.

For Poland, this is an opportunity to support the technological modernisation of the defence sector and the development of companies in new and groundbreaking dual-use technologies, i.e. for both civil and defence purposes.

Business acceleration will be provided primarily by KPT, while technological acceleration and access to research and laboratory infrastructure will be provided by AGH. DIANA works with start-ups and companies from across the Alliance selected in competitions, supporting them financially, with training and mentoring, and providing access to a broad network of investors and industry representatives.

‘I am glad that the DIANA Accelerator is being created in Krakow, which will be an impulse for the translation of technologies that are invented for use and for the needs of the armed forces, for the needs of security, of the defence industry in various dimensions’, said Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defence, Władysław Kosiniak – Kamysz during his visit to AGH.

He emphasised that we need companies to invest in drones, artificial intelligence or cyber. ‘The facility, which will be located at AGH University of Science and Technology today, will be an extraordinary support for the functioning and building of the drone component, but also the satellite component of the Polish Armed Forces’, stressed the head of the national defence ministry.

Adrian Andrzejewski