Leadership from Allied Command Transformation (ACT) met with local business leaders and representatives from Old Dominion University June 8.

“This was a collaborative effort that came about as I spoke with the people at ACT about collaboration, especially among small and medium sized businesses” said Thomas Osha, President and CEO, Innovation Research Park and ODU and event organiser. “A lot of large corporations have visibility, presence and access to NATO and its nations. Sometimes the small business is left out. In innovation and new ideas, great things come out of the small businesses.”

He added, “We wanted to create a forum where some of those ideas could rise up, where the folks at ACT could understand the kinds of small businesses out there and the small businesses could understand how to better interface with NATO.”

Wayne Buck, ACT Modelling and Simulation Analyst, explains ACT’s role in these discussions. “This event and the last one are sponsored by entities who want to show off their ideas and we are very fortunate to have NATO, in the guise of ACT, sponsor this one.”

The event is not just beneficial for the business owners but for ACT as well. Buck explained what ACT gains from participating in these kinds of discussions.

“First, we are an innovative group of concept developers and are looking for new ideas to integrate into the Alliance. This allows us at the local level to interact with business, researchers and others who have bright ideas,” he said. “The second and main reason is to have a pre-meeting with small and medium sized business owners to discuss what they can contribute to the relationship between ACT and industry.”

According to Assistant Chief of Staff Capability Engineering, Italian Army Brigadier General Giovanni Fungo, the event was a great success because it helps to reinforce ACT’s role as a leading agent for innovation in NATO.

“It was the first time we have engaged with small and medium sized businesses from industry in this type of forum,” said Fungo. “We have found lots of interest from their side. They were very excited to hear how we at ACT conduct our requirement development. They were also interested in how we conduct capability development. I think there is a lot of room for further development of contacts and engagements like this one.”

Dr Eric Pouliquen heads the Future Solutions, Modelling and Simulation Branch at ACT responsible for coordinating with industry. The ACT Office of Collaboration with Academia and Industry may be contacted at ffci@act.nato.int.