On Monday (5 August 2024) NATO published a summary of the new NATO-Ukraine Innovation Cooperation Roadmap, previously endorsed by NATO and Ukrainian leaders at the Washington Summit. This agreement is a significant step forward in increasing NATO-Ukraine cooperation in the field of innovation in line with its five key objectives:
- helping meet Ukraine's urgent needs through innovative solutions;
- strengthening Ukraine's innovation system and making it more resilient;
- enhancing cooperation between NATO's and Ukraine's innovation networks;
- sharing best practice on Ukrainian technologies and tactics;
- bolstering NATO's military innovation and technological change.
By bringing together entrepreneurs, technology companies, venture capitalists, students, researchers, and defence innovation agencies, this roadmap aims to tackle Ukraine's pressing problems and turn them into battlefield successes. It establishes NATO as a central platform through which Ukraine can communicate its needs for new technologies, encourage innovation, and invite the public and private sector to match those needs.
The roadmap encourages stronger ties between NATO and Ukraine's innovation initiatives, including through prize challenges, hackathons, and other collaborative activities. For example, in June, NATO and Ukraine launched the first-ever Defence Innovators Forum, which brought together more than 450 start-ups, investors, and government officials to address real-world challenges. These and similar efforts in the future will help unlock Ukraine's innovation potential and ensure both NATO and Ukraine can find innovative solutions to real-world operational challenges.
