Norfolk, VA and Lisbon, Portugal – The NATO Innovation Hub, in close coordination with the Portuguese Ministry of National Defense, announced “Share My Space” as the winner of the NATO Innovation Challenge (Spring 2020/1 iteration) on June 29th, 2021.
Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, General Paolo Ruggiero, co-chaired the event and delivered the $8,500 in monetary prize to the winning team; their solution could support the development of future NATO concepts, doctrine, standards, requirements, capability development, and will get stage-time at NATO-wide events.
Both the political and military authorities expressed appreciation towards Allied Command Transformation’s role of Innovation leading agent within NATO: the opening remarks, provided by the Portuguese Minister of Defence Dr. Joao Gomes Cravinho and the closing remarks, by the Chief of Defence Admiral Antonio Silva Ribeiro, highlighted the leading role of Allied Command Transformation as driver of Innovation within the Alliance and the large interest from Nations on the subject.
While the majority of the 10 finalists from Canada, France, Germany, Latvia, Netherlands, Slovenia and the UK delivered their pitches via online means, some were onsite. Share My Space provided the winning pitch for their solution “Visualization and anticipation of hostile space manoeuvers”. The second place winner was Mission space for their solution “New real-time and short-term hazard warning system of incoming CME’s and space weather events”. The third place winner was University of Calgary with VizworX for their solution “3D Collaborative Space Situation Awareness System”.
The Spring 2021/1 Innovation Challenge iteration focused on innovative solutions that improve space domain awareness.
The Innovation Challenge began on 26 March and interested innovators had until 22 May 2021 to register for participation with the winner being announce on pitch day – 29 June, 2021.
This Innovation Challenge is seeking innovative solutions to collect and analyze all relevant open sources information contributing to the space domain awareness, assess and prevent any disruption or denial of space-based capabilities and services; and visualize and present the space domain information in an innovative, different way that would facilitate quick and efficient decision-making.
The challenge, open to entrepreneurs, designers, inventors, engineers, scientists, coders, innovators and others. The best entries in this edition of the NATO Innovation Challenge could help inform and support the development of future NATO military doctrine, standards and requirements, and the development of new capabilities.
Since 2017, The NATO Innovation Hub from Headquarters Supreme Allied Command Transformation (HQ SACT) has organized innovation challenges twice a year. Each challenge is co-organized with a NATO Nation which host the final event: the pitch day of the finalists. The challenge is open to anyone (individuals, entrepreneurs, start-ups, industry, academia, etc.) located in NATO Nations. The Innovation Challenge aims to give NATO new, creative and efficient ways to respond to security challenges.
By organizing these important competitive innovation challenges around real-world issues, Allied Command Transformation continues to be at the forefront of NATO efforts as it relates to the importance of transformation and development as continuous and essential drivers of change.
