The competition comes as NATO members move to urgently secure the Arctic theatre. 

Five companies have been awarded up to EUR50,000 each to continue developing their Arctic innovations by NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA). 

The winners, selected as part of DIANA’s Arctic Innovation Mobilisation (AIM) competition, were initially among the 75 companies participating in the Norwegian military’s 2025 Arctic Warrior Experiment (AWE), before being invited to submit bids. 

AIM seeks to find solutions which fulfil the “capability needs of end-users in the Arctic environment”, DIANA said in a statement. 

Eutelsat America and OneWeb Technologies (US), Biodrone AS (Norway), Galvion (US), Quaze Technologies (Canada) and Safeback AS (Norway) all secured funding. 

The challenge comes as Arctic security rises in importance for NATO members, with increased Chinese and Russian activity in the region. 

The winning solutions 

Eutelsat and OneWeb proposed their AstraPNT system, designed to process position, navigation and timing (PNT) signals in environments where global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) may be challenged. Denying GNSS is a key tactic in modern warfare as most platforms depend on these signals to operate. 

Meanwhile, Biodrone AS put forward a mine and unexploded ordnance detection model known as ‘Biodrone’.  

Galvion also achieved success, providing its Solopack CWx tactical battery, designed to provide additional power in harsh, cold-weather environments where access to a power grid is unlikely. 

QU6, created by Quaze, was deemed worthy of the grant for its ability to enable resilient, wireless charging of uncrewed systems in the field. With the rising prevalence of uncrewed systems, the QU6 kit could provide a much-need capability. 

Meanwhile, Safeback’s SBX solution was funded because of its potentially life-saving backpack avalanche safety device.  

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