Launch Event: NATO DIANA and DASA Welcome Five Innovators to 2025 Cohort

The first week of the NATO DIANA program for five selected innovators—chosen from over 2,600 applicants—took place at the Imperial College London Innovation Hub (I-HUB) in the White City Innovation District, near the NATO DIANA Headquarters.

Event Highlights: 📅 Date: Thursday, 16 January 📍 Location: Scale Space, White City, London

Selected Innovators:

The event featured keynotes, panel discussions, and networking opportunities with high-profile leaders from defense, finance, and innovation sectors.

Keynote Speakers

  • The Rt Hon Maria Eagle MP – Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry

Additional Speeches:

  • Jyoti Hirani-Driver – COO, NATO DIANA
  • Anita Friend – Head of DASA
  • Tanya Suarez – Founder, Janus Consortium

Panel Discussion Led by Jane Buglear

  • Lt. Gen. Sir Ralph Wooddisse – Commander, NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps
  • Marianthe Evangelides – Director, Sustainable Finance & Investment, London Stock Exchange Group
  • Dr. Nigel Major – EVP, Strategy Senior, PLC
  • Dr. Julie McCann – Professor of Computer Systems, Imperial College
  • Calum Taylor – Defence Industrial Strategy, Ministry of Defence

Closing Remarks:

  • Patrick Schneider-Sikorsky – Partner, NATO Innovation Fund

Meet the Innovators

A special session led by Sami Moughrabie (Atmos Ventures) introduced the five selected innovators:

  • Illya Ostovsky, Head of Partnerships – AI Verse (France)
  • Mikko Juntenen, Co-Founder & CEO – EIFys (Finland)
  • Charles Altuzarra, Co-Founder & CEO – Metahelios (UK)
  • Vladimir Marhefka, Vice-Chairman – RVmagnetics (Slovakia)
  • Veikka Nikander, COO – Winse Power (Finland)

These innovators shared their vision for expanding their capabilities to enhance defense and security solutions across allied nations.

About NATO DIANA

The Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) is a NATO initiative that fosters dual-use innovation to address security challenges across its 32 member nations.

DIANA provides:

  • ✔ Mentorship
  • ✔ Boot camps
  • ✔ Access to NATO’s innovation network

Focus areas:

  • Critical Infrastructure & Logistics
  • Energy & Power
  • Data & Information Security
  • Human Health & Performance
  • Sensing & Surveillance

About DASA

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), a division of the UK Ministry of Defence, was founded after the 2015 UK Strategic Defence and Security Review. It enhances the UK’s strategic advantage by identifying and funding cutting-edge defense technologies.

  • ✔ Connects government, industry, and academia
  • ✔ Supports innovative security solutions

About Janus Consortium

Janus Consortium combines technology acceleration, investment expertise, and defense sector knowledge to support NATO DIANA and DASA.

Partners:

  • IoT Tribe – accelerates the global adoption of disruptive technologies by connecting corporates, government agencies, investors, and startups within a collaborative ecosystem. Through fast-track technology adoption, strategic initiatives, and equity-free accelerators, it drives innovation and growth across industries.
  • Atmos VC – A deep tech investment firm focused on investing, nurturing, and growing Seed and Series A-stage European firms, as well as North American firms looking to open R&D centers in Europe, with a potential to become global players.
  • The SETsquared Partnership – The UK’s top-ranked startup hub and third in Europe. SETsquared is a collaboration between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey which partners in enterprise activities and collectively supports the growth and success of new business opportunities through spin-outs, licensing and incubation.
  • Arrow – A £30 billion Fortune 500 electronics company specializing in defence and security supply chains

Conclusion

This event marked the beginning of an exciting journey for the five selected innovators, connecting them with NATO, defense industry experts, and investors to scale their cutting-edge technologies.

Author
Vladimir Marhefka
Vladimir holds position of Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors at RVmagnetics. In his current role he’s responsible for Strategy, Business Development and Marketing activities of the company. During 18+ years of experience he held executive, strategy and business development roles in various B2B industries, led international sales teams and lived in Spain and Australia. With the background in finance, Vladimir’s interest is in deeptech, international startups, and industrial IOT.