NATO and Ukraine launched a High-Level Innovation Dialogue as officials from both sides met in Brussels to discuss ways for enhancing long-standing cooperation on science and technology.
The NATO and Ukrainian officials and experts met on May 25-26 in Belgium. The NATO delegation was led by Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, David van Weel, while Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology, Mykhailo Fedorov represented his country in the meeting.
According to the NATO statement, “The launch of this Dialogue aims to expand the existing NATO-Ukraine partnership, by exchanging views on the development of innovation ecosystems for both commercial and defense needs, and by sharing lessons learned from Ukraine.”
NATO’s Assistant Secretary General van Weel praised the bravery, creativity, agility, and innovation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and said, “NATO stands behind Ukraine, including in their innovation efforts. Where wartime hobbyists, startups, and NGOs help overmatch Russian aggressors today – we can also see a pathway for a robust Ukrainian innovation ecosystem in economic reconstruction tomorrow.”
During the meetings, the officials identified two areas where NATO can support the dual-use Ukrainian innovation ecosystem. “The first is providing experts to help evaluate technologies, and the second is exploring financing pathways that multiply the reach of Ukrainian innovation efforts for the benefit of Ukraine and Allied innovation ecosystems”, the statement read.
The participants also recognized the importance of science and innovation in defending against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as for the future economic reconstruction of Ukraine. The officials identified “advanced technology, energy security, and digital resilience as new priority areas for scientific cooperation, based on Ukraine’s current and upcoming needs, and discussed concrete research proposals, including on the detection of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, the use of Artificial Intelligence for the prediction of threats to energy grids, spectrum monitoring, and on digital twins for energy supply monitoring and dynamic adaptation,” the NATO statement highlighted.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Fedorov said, “Innovations play a special role in confronting the enemy, which is many times superior in terms of weapons and personnel. The launch of the NATO-Ukraine Innovation Dialogue is an important step that will bring cooperation between our country and the Alliance to a new level. We are also ready to share our experience with our allies. After all, we have been using innovations in real-world combat operations for more than a year now.”
