FORT Open Kraków

Kraków hosts NATO innovation

With the decision of NATO, Poland, as the only country in the east Alliance, has become the host of DIANA accelerator, which underlines the function of our country in the improvement of defence technologies and in building safety in the region. DIANA It is simply a Natal initiative working with technological centres and entrepreneurs to make and implement modern defence technologies. The network shall supply the beneficiaries of the programme with access to training, funding, commercial advice and investigating centres.

FORT Kraków (Future-Oriented investigation & Technologies) is simply a joint venture University of discipline and Technology in Kraków and Krakow Technology Park. As the only NATO DIANA accelerator in Poland, it acts as a bridge between the planet of science, technology companies, armed forces, defence manufacture and public administration. The intent of FORT is to make and support commercialization of innovative dual-use technologies, strengthening the safety and defence of Poland and the Alliance states.

Professor Jerzy Lis, Rector of AGH, stressed that discipline and business can work together for defence. “The launch of NATO DIANA accelerator in Krakow confirms that Polish discipline and the ecosystem of innovation have reached maturity, which allows to co-create solutions crucial to the safety of the full Alliance”, said the rector. He besides pointed out that AGH, as a method college with strong competence in the deep tech area, takes work not only for the improvement of technology, but besides for their real use: from laboratories, through tests, to implementation in collaboration with manufacture and military user.

The programme implemented by FORT Kraków is attended by 7 NATO-selected start-ups from the US and Europe. For six months, teams will benefit from mentoring, expert facilities and investigating infrastructure, developing technology and business competence at all stages of product improvement – from investigation and prototyping to validation to implementation and scaling. Under the DIANA programme, Polish experts will besides aid companies test and commercialise solutions in the field of autonomy, unmanned systems and counter drones.

The centre besides focuses on education and awareness raising on advanced technological needs resulting from the specificity of modern battlefields and hybrid threats. “Innovators, who work under the Kraków Acceleration Programme, make solutions that respond to very circumstantial needs: expanding the safety of military operations and supporting soldiers on the front line”, said Bartosz Józefowski, deputy manager of the technological park department in Kraków Technology Park.

– Our function as guardian of the NATO DIANA programme in Poland is to make conditions for investigating these technologies in practice, verifying them and preparing them for further improvement in close cooperation with global partners and possible users," Józefowski said. Startups will make key technologies for the modern battlefield, including autonomous systems to support detection and prevention Unmanned air systems, Anti-drone systems or solutions supporting the protection of critical infrastructure.

Poland is transatlantic

During the gathering Kosiniak-Kamysz besides talked about building the military potential, which is 1 of the key pillars of Poland's safety strategy. He pointed to evidence defence spending and the request to rapidly implement modern systems. – Poland is the leader of an arms transition in Europe. The safety budget is PLN 200 billion today. We have never invested so much in defence in the past of the Polish state – the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.

The head of the MON besides pointed out that the current global circumstances require a country's consequences and long-term reasoning alternatively than an emotional response. – In a planet full of tensions, very bright emotions and violent assessments, 1 must stay calm. The function of Poland is to take the right direction and to endure in it, without perversion and without decisions taken from hr to hr – said the minister. At the same time, he stressed that Poland is simply a transatlantic link between Europe and the US. “There is no NATO without the United States, there is no power of the United States without their participation in the North Atlantic Pact,” concluded Władysław Kosiniak-Kamish.