The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, together with the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), are preparing the first joint UNITE — Brave NATO competition, which should accelerate the emergence of new defense technologies on the front and enhance the interoperability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the armies of the Alliance.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, together with the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), are preparing the first joint UNITE — Brave NATO competition, which should accelerate the emergence of new defense technologies on the front and enhance the interoperability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the armies of the Alliance.
According to the Ministry of Digital Affairs, a pilot competition starting in early 2026 will award 10 million euros in grants: half will be financed by NATO through the Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine (CAP), and the same amount will be allocated by the Ministry of Digital Affairs. On the Ukrainian side, the Brave defense cluster will be responsible for implementation, and on the Alliance side, NCIA.
Participants from Ukraine and NATO countries will be able to submit solutions in four areas: counter-drone systems, signals intelligence (SIGINT), navigation technologies in conditions of powerful electronic suppression, and ground robotic systems. Preference will be given to developments that can be quickly integrated into the military and scaled within the Euro-Atlantic space.
Applications are planned to begin in February 2026, and the winners of the first UNITE — Brave NATO competition will be announced in the spring of 2026 during the second Ukraine — NATO Defense Innovators Forum. The organizers promise to publish detailed rules for participation and subsequent selection waves in 2026.
The first pilot should be a test of the format. If successful, the Ministry of Digital Affairs and NATO plan to scale the program and increase the total amount of funding to 50 million euros. The government expects that UNITE — Brave NATO will become a permanent channel of joint investments in defense solutions that are tested on the Ukrainian battlefield and immediately increase the readiness of the entire Euro-Atlantic community.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how the Ministry of Digital Affairs announced the holding of the first state AI hackathon together with EPAM Ukraine and WINWIN AI Center of Excellence. The goal of the Diia.AI Contest is to create new AI solutions for state services, so participants will work on real cases of integrating AI into the Diia application.
