NITEC19 – NATO Opens Defense Innovation Challenge calls for C4ISR solutions

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI) announced the opening of the fourth annual Defense Innovation Challenge (NITEC19) to start-ups, SMEs and academia.

The Agency calls for proposals on solutions that could support NATO’s command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) and of course to improve cyber capabilities.

According to the official website, the challenge focuses on data science and natural language processing, for this reason, NATO Communications and Information Agency is accepting submissions in the following priority areas:

Data science tools and approaches for a) Natural Language Processing for semantics and sentiment analysis, or b) processing data from maritime environments;
Capabilities for sensing the maritime environment;
Solutions to the telecommunication challenges of the High North.

The challenge aims at accelerating transformational, state-of-the-art technology solutions from participants to support NATO’s C4ISR and improve its cyber capabilities.

“The NITEC innovation challenge,” said Mike Street, Head of innovation and data science at the NCI Agency, “is a great way for a wide range of companies and organizations to share their innovative products and services with the NCI Agency. It is one of the routes we use to ensure that NATO’s technology experts stay aware of how innovative technologies are being applied.”

The top ten proposals will be exposed in a 5-minute pitch presentation during the plenary session of the NITEC19 event. The winner will receive a
prize of 10 000 EUR, it will be also tasked of running a formal pilot with the NCI Agency to demonstrate their solution.

“We are seeking to broaden engagement with innovative technology drivers as NATO undergoes its largest technological modernization in decades,” said NCI Agency General Manager Kevin J. Scheid.

Proposals must be received by 22 March, and the Agency will announce the winners on 8 April.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – NITEC19, NATO)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.