NATO Secretary General at signing ceremony of NATO Innovation Fund, 30 JUN 2022

Remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Signing Ceremony of the NATO Innovation Fund Letter of Commitment by participating Allied Leaders, 30 June 2022.

On Thursday (30 June 2022), at a signing ceremony hosted by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Leaders and Ministers from 22 Allied countries* launched NATO’s Innovation Fund, the world’s first multi-sovereign venture capital fund.

“This fund is unique”, the Secretary General said, “with a 15-year timeframe, the NATO Innovation Fund will help bring to life those nascent technologies that have the power to transform our security in the decades to come, strengthening the Alliance’s innovation ecosystem and bolstering the security of our one billion citizens.”

The Fund will invest 1 billion euros in early-stage start-ups and other venture capital funds developing dual-use emerging technologies of priority to NATO. These include: artificial intelligence; big-data processing; quantum-enabled technologies; autonomy; biotechnology and human enhancement; novel materials; energy; propulsion and space.

The Fund will complement NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic – or DIANA – which will support the development and adaptation of dual-use emerging technologies to critical security and defence challenges. There has also been significant progress for DIANA at the 2022 Madrid Summit where Allies agreed that innovators participating in DIANA’s programs will have access to a network of more than 9 Accelerator Sites and more than 63 Test Centres across Europe and North America.

*Belgium; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Iceland; Italy; Latvia; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Slovakia; Spain; Türkiye; United Kingdom.

🗣 | NATO Secretary General:

Thank you so much, and good morning to all of you.
Presidents, Prime Ministers,
Ladies and gentlemen,
And thank you for coming here to sign this Letter of Commitment for the new NATO Innovation Fund.

This fund is unique.
It is the world’s first multi-sovereign venture capital fund ever.
Investing 1 billion euros in early-stage start-ups,
and other deep-tech funds across 22 participating nations.
Harnessing the best of new technology for transatlantic security.
Maintaining our technological edge has helped to keep our Alliance strong and our nations safe for more than seventy years.

But today, nations that do not share our values, like Russia and China, are challenging that lead.
In everything from Artificial Intelligence to space technologies.
It is essential that we do everything in our power to remain at the forefront of innovation and technology.
This Fund, alongside DIANA, NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, will help to do just that.
With a 15-year timeframe, the NATO Innovation Fund will help bring to life those nascent technologies that have the power to transform our security in the decades to come.
Strengthening the Alliance’s innovation ecosystem.
And bolstering the security of our one billion citizens.

So I want to thank you all for the hard work to make this Fund a reality.
And now I will invite you to sign the Letter of Commitment.
Thank you.

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