On Thursday, March 14, the Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) program board approved the joining of the first accelerator from Latvia - "UniLab Defence" - to the program's accelerator network.

"UniLab Defence" is a part of UniLab, a technology business incubator established by all four Latvia's science universities:

• Riga Technical University
• University of Latvia
• Riga Stradins University
• Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies

The Latvian accelerator will be given the opportunity to manage the NATO DIANA acceleration program in Latvia and to support the technological development of Latvian start-ups selected to participate in the NATO DIANA acceleration program.

The partnership between Unilab and Accelerace aims to enhance the commercialization and development of high-value, tech-intensive startups within Latvian university ecosystem. This collaboration brings together the expertise and resources of leading science universities and Accelerace, Scandinavia's foremost venture capital and acceleration fund. It represents a significant move towards fostering innovation, technological transfer, and entrepreneurial capacity within the academic and business communities. This initiative also aligns with UniLab's role in the NATO DIANA innovation program, which broadens the network of testing centers and accelerators, further contributing to Latvia's startup ecosystem and defense innovation.

Camp Adazi in Latvia has become Europe's first innovative 5G military test site, a milestone that significantly enhances NATO's DIANA innovation program's capacity by integrating cutting-edge 5G technology into defence operations. This initiative is set to improve the network of testing centers and accelerators, facilitating advanced research, development, and testing in a secure environment, thereby bolstering defence capabilities and fostering innovation within the alliance.

NATO's DIANA accelerators provide high-level program development for participating companies, while a network of test centers provides access to state-of-the-art testing capabilities across the Alliance.
Accelerators and test centers are available to companies participating in the NATO DIANA program, as well as to those companies that the program will support in the future, providing expert advice and access to test and test their technologies in a specialized environment.

Latvia has been participating in the NATO DIANA program since June 2022, and its goal is to promote the development of dual applicability start-ups in NATO member states, promoting cooperation between innovators, researchers and end users.

The NATO DIANA program focuses on innovators who offer solutions in one of the emerging and transformative technology sectors, such as artificial intelligence, big data processing, quantum technologies, autonomy, biotechnology, new materials and space.

Sources: Innovation program NATO DIANA significantly expands the number of testing centers and accelerators, Acceleration fund "Accelerace" and science university incubator "Unilab" agree on cooperation to develop startups in Latvia, Camp Ādaži becomes the first innovative 5G military test site in Europe.