GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Status

Accepted

Abstract

Around the world, governments hope to leverage procurement for innovation—and then to carry that innovation into sustained production, across the “valley of death” where many innovative technologies fail in development. To access technologies emerging across the Alliance for the common defense, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has launched the Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA). DIANA nurtures dual use (military and commercial) technologies across the NATO Alliance, and offers important strategies—including funding, accelerator programming, connections with end users and commercial expertise, testing and demonstration opportunities, private investment, and rapid adoption—for technological innovation in public procurement. This article demonstrates DIANA’s potential to complement existing procurement systems and efficiently provide for the adoption of new, commercial technologies by defense and security end users within the NATO Alliance. While presenting the operational model of DIANA, special attention will be given to the “Rapid Adoption Service”—DIANA’s constituent element intended to support agile and rapid development and adoption of innovative solutions by Allies and NATO. DIANA will operationalize the Rapid Adoption Service through a single set of rules supporting contracting vehicles that can be utilized by multilateral, multinational, and bilateral consortia to continue development and eventually procurement of innovative solutions, directly, through national procurement structures, or through partner NATO elements such as the NATO Support and Procurement Agency or the NATO Communications and Information Agency.

GW Paper Series

2025-04

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