Scheme details
Area: Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, County Durham, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Northumberland
Categories: Finance & funding, Grant
Business stage: Trading business
Page last updated: 20 June 2025
DIANA is the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, an organisation established by NATO to find and accelerate dual-use innovation capacity across the Alliance.
DIANA provides companies with the resources, networks and guidance to develop deep technologies to solve critical defence and security challenges, from operating in denied environments to tackling threats to our collective resilience.
The NATO Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) has announced its third annual set of challenges and opened a new call for applications.
DIANA is seeking innovative, ground-breaking solutions in the following ten focus areas:
- Energy and Power
- Advanced Communication Technologies
- Operations in Extreme Environments
- Maritime Operations
- Resilient Space Operations
- Autonomy and Unmanned Systems
- Data Assisted Decision Making
- Contested Electromagnetic Environments
- Human Resilience and Biotechnology
- Critical Infrastructure and Logistics
Selected companies will receive €100,000 in contractual funding, with top performers eligible for up to an additional €300,000 in the next programme phase. Participants will also gain access to over 180 test centres, a tailored programme bridging defence and commercial sectors, and a network of top-tier mentors from across the Alliance. DIANA offers support and connections to help civilian-sector companies enter the traditionally high-barrier defence market.
Applications for the DIANA accelerator are open until 11 July.
The 6-month programme will begin in January 2026. All dual-use deep tech companies registered in a NATO member state are eligible to apply.