By integrating and interconnecting innovation ecosystems and technical facilities across the Alliance, the NATO Digital Foundry provides the underlying infrastructure of data, tools, expertise, and testing environments needed for NATO’s innovation communities to continuously channel scientific and technological breakthroughs into operational capability over the coming years.
The initiative was officially launched by NCIA General Manager Ludwig Decamps. “Our mission is to be ready, and that demands that we enhance our technological edge, increasing the need for rapid, iterative innovation. This need was also reaffirmed by the Nations at the Summit right here in The Hague.” Decamps explained to the gathered attendees: “That requires we go further and faster in the conversion of emerging technology into new capabilities, and to stay ahead of disruptive threats.”
By 2030, this initiative aims to have established an innovation ecosystem that can channel emerging and disruptive technologies into operational tools or capabilities within six months. The NDF has already started integrating NCIA's laboratories and reference environments into a unified architecture, bringing together multi-domain expertise spanning Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), Command and Control (C2), Air C2, and Cyber while also incorporating access to technologies across Cloud, Data Exploitation, Cybersecurity, Next Generation Networks, Quantum, and Space Technologies
The NDF represents a true collaborative effort across the Alliance, as reflected by the participation of stakeholders from NATO strategic commands, DIANA, and Allied Nations. The launch event encouraged the gathered stakeholders to shape and empower the initiative over the coming years as NATO expands its defence and deterrence efforts in future of renewed geopolitical contestation and rapid technological upheaval.