Speaker A
Welcome, everybody. My name is Harry Tallinn. I'm a partner at Civitta and defense vertical lead here. Also, in this context, the consortium lead for the DefSec Forces, which we will be talking about today.
Informative webinar on DefTech Forces 2026 by EU Defence and Space, detailing participation, challenges, timeline, and support for defense tech innovators.
Key Takeaways
- DefTech Forces is a key EU defense innovation event enabling real-world testing and feedback for defense tech solutions.
- The program supports a clear development path with financial grants and mentoring to advance promising technologies.
- Challenges focus on urgent operational needs, particularly related to Ukraine and EU defense priorities.
- Participation is competitive and requires well-prepared applications, but recurring editions allow multiple opportunities.
- Collaboration with military, industry, and innovation partners is central to the event's success.
What the video covers
- Introduction to DefTech Forces as a multi-day defense innovation event for startups, scale-ups, SMEs, and larger companies to showcase and field test solutions.
- DefTech Forces offers direct feedback from military operators, end users, system integrators, and partners, fitting into the broader European defense innovation ecosystem.
- The event lasts five intensive days, focusing on solutions at TRL 4 or higher, with recurring editions every four months at different locations.
- Challenges are mission-driven, aligned with operational needs of Ukraine and EU countries, emphasizing contributions to defense capabilities.
- The program includes multiple phases with grants: phase one offers €120,000 to winners, phase two involves mentoring and operational testing, leading to further funding.
- Participation requires thorough application preparation, with support for travel logistics and export/import controls.
- The consortium lead is Civitta, with partners across 25+ countries and collaboration with industrial partners like Rheinmetall and Rohde & Schwarz.
- The webinar covers Q&A procedures, interaction rules, and encourages participants to use the Q&A feature for questions and collaboration.
- Facilities and locations for the event are described, highlighting quality assets and support for participants.
- The program aims to scale validated operational solutions to European armies and foster innovation in defense technology.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Housekeeping
- 02:05Q&A and Interaction Guidelines
- 04:21Overview of DefTech Forces and Related Programs
- 07:09Mission-Driven Challenges and Operational Needs
- 09:37Program Phases, Grants, and Development Path
- 12:34Application Process and Logistics
- 16:11Mentoring and Phase Two Testing
- 19:11Partners and Industrial Collaboration
- 25:33Facilities and Locations Overview
- 28:02Closing Remarks and Final Q&A
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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And I'm very happy that we have so many interested participants in this info session.
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To hear more about what DefSec Forces is, how it is possible to take part in it, what’s the timeline, and what is on the plate this time.
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So I have my colleagues here and the partners who will get screen to share with you today as well.
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But without any longer further ado, I will just kick it off. During the time, many others also join on an ongoing basis, as I see at the moment.
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So more than 100 people already in the call. That's great. But before we start, as usual, little housekeeping rules in here as well.
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The meeting will be recorded and published on the website later for the others who could not join or who discover DefSec Forces later. So be aware of that.
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All the interaction at the moment is by us set up in a way that it's in anonymous mode. So your name, your picture, anything else is not seen.
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But if you are looking for collaboration partners and you actually want to reveal yourself, then chat is the place where you can do it.
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But this is at your risk, and you take it if you want to do that. By default,
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you are here on your own, and you can decide when and how you reveal yourself for the others.
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Use this Q&A button. That's what we will monitor later for all the questions which are raised during the webinar.
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Not chat, Q&A. And in Q&A, you can also upvote more interesting questions, but we will definitely go through all of them.
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We will monitor them on an ongoing basis, and if something is missed, we will do the cross-check later as well and come back with the questions where maybe there are some more things to think about before the final answer because sometimes things are a little bit more complicated as well. But it shouldn't be the case normally.
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Your mic is disabled, as you can see here. That's in order to really be smooth in the operation from our side here because we have all together just one hour to introduce you to everything,
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and we know how webinars can be if there are too many participants talking at the same time. So, that's the housekeeping in the beginning here.
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So, goals for today's info session: to talk a little bit about the program, open it up for you, what it is exactly.
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To understand a bit what are the themes and challenges to which ones you can respond today.
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Where and how to apply to the program, and what actually two locations where physically you will be able to attend once selected as a participant.
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What those locations exactly can offer to you, so you can make a choice where you want to apply and what's the place you really want to take part of.
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So, maybe then let's kick it off, right? Already? Good. Thank you. So, what is DefTech Forces in reality?
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DefTech Forces is a multi-day defense innovation event where startups, scale-ups, and also SMEs or bigger companies with their totally new innovation can take part, field test, and showcase their solutions and get direct feedback from the
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military operators, end users, system integrators, and other relevant partners. That's putting it really in short.
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As we all know, on the European level, there are pretty many very interesting and helpful programs running already today.
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European defense tech hackathons, European defense accelerator, matchmaking program, now also the DefTech Forces. We all know EDF and new support measures which have been coming up. So, DefTech Forces fits nicely into the place where you can
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come, get real feedback from the end users, demonstrate what you have built, and really go through the accelerated pace to try to integrate your solutions with other participants and also with end users and system
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integrators. So, really give you the opportunity to showcase what you have.
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In our case here, what is happening next and what you will hear about more very soon, the event takes place five days.
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It's very intensive, starting from 8:00 in the morning, finishing rather at midnight than late in the evening, which could be in the time schedule often.
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And you will see yourself once selected, and we will have people sharing their experience as well from the first edition later.
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It is definitely something beyond ideation. If you are less than TRL 4, then I think there are other programs I mentioned, like let's say defense hackathons, which could be more suitable for you at the moment and which would help you to
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also prepare for this kind of endeavor. But don't be afraid. When you are not sure, just apply. You will get feedback. You will be better prepared for the next time as well.
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But from the first edition, we can say that we received quite a lot of applications. So when you are filling in your applications, be sure that you are doing it really well.
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This will not be the only one. The very first NATO forces happened in Estonia and France at the beginning of June.
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This is from where we have also one team sharing experience today with you. But they will happen now in the next years after every four months. So again, if you don't feel ready yet, it's fine. In four
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months, there will be new locations, new challenges, and you will be able to apply again if you were not accepted to the upcoming one.
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The challenges themselves, they are very mission-driven. As it is under the DefTech EU agenda, it is quite clear from where the main challenges are coming from. They are related to actual operational needs of Ukraine.
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Challenges are coming from Ukraine and the EU countries, but they are very much aligned together. So it is really, really important that when you are coming here, you actually want to contribute to the capabilities of Ukraine and the EU
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and end users for future purposes. Maybe, opening for you up very quickly also a little bit bigger picture. We are talking here mainly today about DefTech Forces and the five-day events on two different locations.
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But it is a wider program in reality. So today we are here. You can apply with your solutions.
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DefTech Forces will happen in November. On both locations, we will have three winners who will receive the grant of 120,000 euros, which they can use for whatever they want, but obviously, we expect it to be used for the development
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of your solutions for the next stage. This is the phase one you see here.
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And three best teams from both locations will continue in a mentoring program which we provide after the event,
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where they can be helped by our experts to be prepared for phase two.
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And phase two means that six teams who will be across two locations selected will have the opportunity to showcase their further developed solutions in OPEX type of activity. So, meaning even higher level
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military exercise or testing. From there, four best teams will be selected who will continue and get 300K grant each for their next step development.
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Then after a few months, they have the opportunity to showcase their further development again.
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And two best teams out of it will get 500K vouchers.
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So, as you can see, it is a very nice development path for the best teams who really perform well, and obviously, our main focus is to get really validated operational solutions which, at the end, would be possible to scale up to
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the armies of Europe. So, this is a little bit wider picture. When we talk about phase one, phase two is currently operated by the European Defence Agency and in phase one,
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uh, introducing consortium for you as well, so you know to whom to uh, turn to if you have wider questions about the DefTech Forges in general.
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So, uh, I'm from Civitta and my colleague Thomas Crew will start talking soon uh, also from Civitta here. Uh, we are the lead partner uh, for this program uh, and multiple others defence tech programs where we are involved. We are
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uh, currently me and Thomas here in Estonia, Tallinn, but our offices are in 25 plus countries including Ukraine which is our second largest office. Uh, Starburst uh, our colleagues here, I don't see at the moment, uh, are located in France and Germany,
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but they have also multiple locations and Dark Star who is the uh, defence tech VC uh, and ecosystem builder uh, actively operating also across Europe uh, uh, but uh, firstly located in Estonia and Ukraine.
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So, that's very shortly about it. I will not uh, waste more time on the general talks because you are here to understand more what is happening in the next uh, steps in order to be able to successfully uh, apply for the DefTech
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Forges next edition. So, I would be happily giving over the virtual floor to Thomas. Please, go for it.
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Thank you so much, Harry. Hello. I'm Thomas from Tallinn. And glad to take you through some of the more detailed points about applying and and so on.
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So, to the timeline. The timeline for this edition is pretty fast-paced. Applications are open right now and close strictly on the 6th of September.
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So, evaluation after that runs throughout the end of September and selected company companies will be officially invited at the end of September or beginning of October.
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Both the German and the Romanian DefTech forges will run simultaneously uh on the week of November 9th.
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So, when you apply, please you can start already planning your potential travel logistics since export and import control does take more time and once the selection really lands, the runway to November moves extremely flat fast.
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So, who are we looking for these defense tech forges? We evaluate applications against four core criteria.
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We look at your strategic edge. So, we're really looking for a disruptive tech that is tackling actual battlefield needs, not just marginal upgrades, so to say.
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We're looking at testability and problem solution fit. So, your product must be at least TRL 4.
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We need tangible prototypes and and proof of it. So, these prototypes can be actively field testing tested during the forge, not just paper ideas or unvalidated concepts.
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For the third criteria, we're looking at your business model. We want to see a clear fast-track potential for market penetration in in the defense market. Uh And then, the last one, we're looking at your team. We're looking for a balanced
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execution-focused team spanning, you know, technical expertise and domain knowledge. Um Our eligibility criteria are the rules that also govern the European Defense Fund. So, people who are citizens and residents of the European Union, Norway, or Ukraine.
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Uh to be a beneficiary of the non-diluted funding, we are expecting the final ratification by the Ukrainian Parliament, so Ukrainian teams can also be beneficiaries of this non-diluted funding. Participation for Ukrainian teams is no issue. It's It's the
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funding part that we're waiting for the ratification. All right. Let's move on here. So, why should your team apply?
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First, you'll really get real operational validation on military fields with end users and mentors. It It isn't just a a simulated indoor lab test. You'll be on the field with end users testing real things, testing your technology against
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um an environment as real as it can be. Uh secondly, you have the chance to gain non-dilutive funding of up to 120,000 euros uh without giving up equity. And third, it really connects you to the local defense ecosystem and the broader
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European uh ecosystem. And other cool stuff I'll I'll have the uh local organizers of the Def Tech Forges tell you very soon.
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As Harry already mentioned, uh the winning teams gain access to a 2-month mentoring program, which will prepare them for the phase two testing and evaluation campaign currently run by the European Defense Agency.
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So, the Def Tech Forge is is just step one. Uh the six winning teams, three from each site, enter a mentoring program to refine their test plans, operational readiness, and get ready for the phase two testing.
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Also, if you are a military veteran, testing expert, or or industry leader, our mentor applications are open. So, we would really like you to really like to invite you to apply to our next expert network and help these founders and
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startups get to the next level and get ready for it. So, and last but not least, how to join.
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Uh you can join via this QR code shown on the slide or visit our website bravetech.eu-deftechforges.eu.
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Choose your location, either Germany or Romania. Fill in all required information. Really fill in the form thoroughly as this will be the main evaluation information that we will be using.
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We will ask you about basic details about your company, contact details, etc. About your current status, development timeline, current needs, and what kind of demonstrations and help you need during the boot camp.
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We'll ask you to upload a pitch deck and ownership declaration to have the administrative side all checked.
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And if there are any questions about it, we'll be happy to help you with that.
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And that is it from my end. So, without further ado, I'd like to open up the floor to our first local organizer who is going to tell us about the Def Tech Forge happening in Germany. Sven, welcome.
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Hello together. Thanks a lot for having me. Have a nice very nice presentation for you and also some nice informations about us.
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I would like to start with some some words about us. And that you probably not known before because maybe it's maybe by it's not so unknown in the European context, but yeah.
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By will yeah, be one of two local organizers for this Brave Tech EU DevSecOps.
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We are honored and pleased to have many of you and many teams with us. And so, yeah, as I said that today I would like to give you a short overview about who we are and what we are planning at the
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moment and also with challenges we would like to address. And yeah, most importantly, what participating teams can expect from yeah, our forge.
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Right. Um, just one or two sentences about us by the way in the chief in general.
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By the way, the chief is innovation agency of the free state of Bavaria. Um, and our role is to connect companies, startups, research institutions, public sector organizations and technology experts to turn these connections into concrete innovation projects. And yeah,
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by the way, the chief with the tech up SVI for security and defense focuses especially on security and defense technologies and our objective is to bring together three perspectives that are very often separated. This technology development, operational demand for the end users and
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the industrial implementation. So, we are work closely with companies with different sizes ranging from established defense players to highly innovative startups. Also with universities.
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Maybe you you are you were or you are a student of one of them and also research institute organizations and institutions and also with the military and the public sector stakeholders. So, yeah, Brave Tech EU DevSecOps is therefore yeah, a
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very natural next step for us. So, bringing this ecosystem that we actually have into a European format to connect you directly with the concrete operational challenges. And um yeah, what we would like to do is to give you the opportunity to
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yeah, choose one of these three challenges, but the most important thing is that we are working together with yeah three no, four yeah, now there are four companies who are actually help will help us and help you to reach
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the next level. So, the the the partner system is therefore established in Germany that we would like to work on a operational military site. So, you will get access to this military site and our yeah, point of contact or main partner is the
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innovation center of the Bundeswehr, which will contribute with military expertise or with mentors and they will give you the military support and they will be also part of the selection board at the end of the Def Tech Forge.
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And on the other side, there are industrial partners who we are working with so associated partners including autonomous teaming systems, Rohde & Schwarz, Rheinmetall, TDW and also many other others from also the industry side. And these partners will
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supporting you individually with the challenges and the program days. So, the objective is to create an environment where you as a team can move quickly from development to integration and also to testing.
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So, yeah, the next step uh for us would be that um yeah, if you have any questions, you can address me. I will be also on on site. I'm the project lead for the Stat-Tech Forge. And we will be also
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reachable via LinkedIn or also via our homepage. And yeah, that will be the the next step. And what you can actually expect from us in these five days is that yeah, the forge is very intense and it will be
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also challenging for you, but the first the first days or the first No, only first day will be for orientation, the challenge immersion, and also for your team formation. You will get together with the other teams and also
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with the mentors. So, there's a little meet and greet. And from the second day onwards, we will focus increasingly to building and integrating and testing. So, as I said, the testing side and military side will be closed for for the other teams or for
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other projects. So, only Brave Tech EU DevTech Forge team will have access to this huge testing site.
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So, the program will have as I said, the associated partners and also the military hosts. And these two mentors will help you in this final until the final day, which is primarily to finish the technical work and preparing also the
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final pitch. Yeah, this is a little story board for the this five days. So, as I said, opening, the initial testing to advance testing, and to refinement.
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The site will be accessible from 6:00 a.m. until up to 10:00 p.m. We We have to to to leave the military side due to reasonable points because we are not soldiers and this military side as I said will be
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closed for a couple of hours. But yeah, up to 6:00 a.m. is absolutely possible to work um until 10:00 p.m.
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Our partners will as I said contribute to these 5 days. So they will help you, but they will also contribute with a little program. So this up to you if you want to join.
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And to get in touch a bit deeper with our partners or you will focus on your work.
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We will see how it will develop. Just yeah, the last slide to to show you again who are our partners. I guess some of them are known to you, especially Rheinmetall and Rohde & Schwarz. So we are very happy to have them with us. And
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yeah, I I think that's um most all of it. I guess the value is absolutely concrete and reasonable.
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Um Again, military side, very very interesting side. It's absolutely on an expert level. Military mentors, industrial mentors, and us with our um future ecosystem here in the south of south of Germany. And yeah, we will be very happy to have you with us
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these days and I'm looking forward to get in touch with you. Thank you so much Sven for for giving us an introduction to the German Def Tech Forge.
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Now we have a second location as well. I'll bring Simonel up here so everyone can see him.
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And yeah, Simonel, take us away. What's what's going to be happening in Romania? Hello. Hello, everyone. And amazing presentation so far. Amazing stuff happening also in Germany, but right now we are moving to Romania.
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Uh I am Simonel. I am from ROSPIN. So, ROSPIN means Romanian Space Initiative. A little bit from us.
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Uh we started some years ago with the idea to develop the space ecosystem in Romania.
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But with uh the activities and the stuff happening in the past years in Romania, but also in East Europe, uh we saw the need of going also to to the defense part. And yeah, from space we have a lot
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of data. So, that's why uh we considered and we've seen a lot of startups uh growing also within our programs, also within our ecosystem, and within all of our partners. We've seen a lot of startups who actually do a great job in in defense. Uh but
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uh the downside is that they are not let's say they do not have the context of testing and validating their ideas. So, DefTech Forgers, I think it's one of the best context for all of the startups. Uh not
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only from Romania, but also from uh from the other countries. So, we are welcoming everyone here.
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Uh so, yeah. We we uh wanted to prepare this uh this DefTech Forgers in the great manner.
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Uh so, we have a lot of partners with us helping all the teams. Also, from the military side, uh we have partners from uh the military academies all over Romania.
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But one of our main partners is the Land Forces Academy from Sibiu. Um and we also have uh one of the partners, Defense SIX, who is a great ecosystem in Romania for um startups and for uh early stage
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teams and companies who want to build and enter this defense sector. So, we we we together with this with our partners, we've chosen some challenges that can be tested and also can uh have a lot of impact in our
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in our ecosystem. Uh when we and with our startups. Uh and uh the first of them is the Yeah, the unattended uh unattended ground sensors uh for multi-domain detection.
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Uh and then the all uh the the next two, challenge five and seven, more related on the drone side, autonomous strike and and swarm coordination.
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Um so, we've chosen these these challenges uh because all of these things has already been uh developed or tested other un- uh under other activities uh at the Land Forces Academy. So, with their experience and with with their uh their knowledge, we think that
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you can get all the help uh within these challenges. So, I hope uh we can see a lot of a lot of people uh and a lot of great ideas uh coming to coming to reality.
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And with the help of um uh the companies that will will get um part of this, uh you'll get also the experience to um to have this to have your solutions tested in a real use case. And the last
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challenge, uh rapid battlefield battlefield adaptation. We've chosen like I've said, everything that can be tested. So, you'll have a lot of space and a lot of, let's say, time to test and validate all of your ideas.
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And to know exactly how this will fit in the agenda, we've thought in these days that we will start with with the onboarding on Monday and we'll have also a site visit. And you're going to have the opportunity on Monday to see
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exactly what are the spaces and what are the facilities that you can benefit from.
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Then, right from from the morning on Tuesday, we're going to start testing with team rotations. And in the meantime, while some teams are while some teams are testing and the others are not testing, they will have some workshop sessions they they can
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attend and they will have military experts to talk to and to validate a little bit more their ideas.
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Then, on Wednesday, we're going to do a review. And if there are some changes that are needed for for the for your solutions, then you're going to have the space and the facilities to to do that.
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On Thursday, we're going to do a second day of testing. And again, as as on Tuesday, we're going to have workshop sessions with military experts.
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And on Friday, we're going to have some some VIPs and some of our partners coming to see our ideas.
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And coming to to judge your ideas, let's say so. You'll have to present and to showcase what you actually uh developed during these days and what you actually tested. Hopefully, you're going to you're going to be successful and everything is going to be
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fine. And because we thought that uh it's not that nice after the final day to just go home, uh we consider that we're going to have some networking sessions after that and some debriefings.
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Um and the departure will be done on Saturday on uh on the uh 6th day.
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So, yeah. In In terms, this is the agenda. Uh for those who are coming outside of Romania, just to know that uh the location is next to next to Sibiu.
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Good. And uh in terms of uh the partners, I think Yeah, we have uh we have just uh to showcase you what are our our partners in Romania right now.
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Uh there will be a lot more and also some companies, uh but these are the ones that we uh started uh our ride with. So, uh I hope you're going to get all uh their experience uh these days.
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Very cool. Uh thank you so much, uh Simona. It seems like both locations are are uh racking up to be very cool and and very quality uh and uh really assets to to teams. But, uh we also have a very special guest joining
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us today on the info session. Um a team who participated in the first edition of the Def Tech Forge in Estonia and won it. So, one of the recipients of of the non-diluted funding and and all other sweet sweet prizes. So, without further
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ado, I'll bring up Joonas from Govalevs. Hi, how you doing, Joonas? Uh I'm doing great and we promised the organizers that we will be direct and we will bring the sword, so brace yourselves. But before we start, Thomas
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Lukas is also online, so if you could also bring him up as a presenter.
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Hi, Joonas and Lukas. How are you doing? Glad to have you here. Hello Thomas, thanks for having me.
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Everybody present. Great to be here. Thank you. Thank you for being here. My name is Lukas. I'm one of the co-founders Kova of Kova. We are a Finnish startup. We make autonomy modules for unmanned systems, so quadcopters and and ground vehicles.
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Uh about the experience in in Estonia, I have three kind of points. First of all, it was a really great opportunity for us to be able to test with actual end users. Uh prior to going to the Estonian event,
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the end users we demoed to was very limited, but then we went when we demoed in Estonia to so many end users, we no longer had only assumptions. We kind of got answers to a lot of pressing problems. And they are a harsh
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and direct with their feedback, which is of course very good and then you can with their feedback develop your products accordingly. Then the second part is there is a lot of mentors present who are industry specialists, veteran soldiers, just people who know
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things. And also for us it was a great experience to leverage kind of their experience, their knowledge and make our company better through that experience.
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And then thirdly, my personal favorite part is that we're not a large company, we're a company of 11 people, and there is companies of 50, 100 people participating, but you don't have to be the biggest company or the most
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experienced one to win. You can win if you complete the challenge. If your product works, if you are the best, you don't have to be the biggest or the most experienced, you have to be the best.
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So, that's the three points from me. Jonas, go ahead. Uh yeah, sure. Uh so, I could put it I could characterize it as you having two options of how to approach DAFTECH Forge.
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First one is that you could go to DAFTECH Forge treated as a uh typical business forum where you know exactly what you are providing and you are only there to do sales uh and be present, or you can do the smart thing
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and actually try to take the most value out of the event. And kind of as Lukas already pointed towards a little bit, uh the most important thing is to have an open mind and actively challenge your assumptions. So, we were chasing around
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the mentors, especially the ones from Ukrainian military, but there was also good amount of people from the Estonian military, other militaries, defense industry, and others. And we actually used their feedback to not just change the pitch deck in order to win, but we
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actually ended up making quite big pivots in our product and our strategy based on that feedback. And I think that like very active adaptation towards the actual needs coming from the end users, my guess is that it was the single biggest thing
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that uh caused us uh to win the event. And then uh for the testing part, uh of course, that one is the one that changes you from PowerPoint warrior into someone who can actually deliver uh capability.
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And there uh it's very good to actually have it's to your basic uh basic promises work. And that when people have actually seen it rather than just heard it, they are much more ready to help you and much more ready to
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work together with you. And the third thing is that I would say that most of the value from the event came not directly at the event, but afterwards. So, for example, both the military contacts and others uh have been very helpful, and we have
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worked together with both the military mentors, other mentors, and companies we found from the event.
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Uh and uh that has helped us a lot. For example, we our company's Ukraine expansion after this event, and let's just say that a lot of doors opened because we were here first.
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Uh there was also like put a lot of emphasis put from the organizers to integrate with companies, and this is a very good opportunity to actually find trustworthy and like-minded uh companies to work with, but it's good to make sure that the
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integrations you do actually make sense, and not just chase the numbers of the biggest number of integrations happening. And actually, we won the event despite not actually doing a single integration uh or showing a single integration in that event.
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So, anything to add, Lucas? No, uh highly recommend to everybody. That's That's my uh final words.
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That's uh that's really great. Thank you so much, guys. Uh hope everything is going well for you after the forge and I hope to catch up soon uh as as well.
Speaker A
So, thank you, Jonas and Lucas. Uh now we have about 20 minutes to look at some of the questions that have uh come through the Q&A.
Speaker A
Some might be more location specific. Some might be more general. So, uh I'll bring some helping hands uh out to uh out here as well. So, if we start from the oldest one or the most upvoted one, let's see.
Speaker A
I see actually the upvoted here that uh could it be given a little bit more information about what tech will be exactly available on site of the hackathon uh here itself hackathons, but we talk about Def Tech Forces
Speaker A
uh event. Mhm. Yeah, I I I don't know if it's a comment uh for the local organizers now from Do Do you guys want to comment this one?
Speaker A
At least from our side, we cannot pinpoint exactly I mean, terms of security in publicly uh to pinpoint exactly what technologies we do we have there, but you're going to find out if you're going to be selected.
Speaker A
We're going to talk directly with the teams. Mhm. Yeah, that's true as well, and this is uh why in application form it's um a very important part also to for you to kind of really describe what do you want
Speaker A
to do exactly uh during the demonstrations and on site and what do you you to achieve with it uh because it will be also looked uh that that what can be done on the location, how feasible it is as well.
Speaker A
Uh, general overview you'll got, but exactly due to the security reasons we are revealing exact locations and the exact means, etc., only to the selected teams and team members and it's not public information.
Speaker A
But as much as in general possible to say, I think uh, has been said.
Speaker A
Good. Then, could you maybe elaborate on the eligibility criteria? Are there any requirements regarding investor location? If a shareholder is based outside the EU, does that affect eligibility or does it depend on the level of influence? And does the citizen
Speaker A
requirement only apply to the team members proposed for the Def Tech Forge or does it extend to the company's management and ownership as well? It has five upvotes here and also the double citizenship question, Harry.
Speaker A
Or which one Yeah, this is the part This is This is the part actually, what will be checked for sure and this is why you need to upload those ownership declaration.
Speaker A
So, putting it It depends a little bit case by case, but putting it putting it really in short, who is more aware of the EDF rules, uh, exactly the same rules are applied in here. So, ownership control meaning that the EU ownership
Speaker A
owners and founders and decision makers uh, should be in charge of the company and its IP.
Speaker A
Uh, but of course there can be many different nuances. If Sven or or you want to uh, comment on it more, but but it there can be pretty many nuances and you can just reach out ask if you have uh specific cases. But yes,
Speaker A
EU citizens, Ukraine citizens, and ownership control by those people. And if if you are an EU EU-based company that is controlled by an unassociated third country entity, EDF rules apply. So, you need a formal guarantee approved by the member state
Speaker A
uh before applying uh in that case. Just to add on to that. All right.
Speaker A
Uh next question, will jamming be provided by organizers? Will jamming scenarios will be discussed in advance?
Speaker A
Where will the testing take place? Can we partner with another company to demonstrate our solution? Or do we need to bring everything ourselves for the Romanian uh organizers? I see this is tagged.
Speaker A
We didn't thought of to provide jamming, but if it will be needed by the selected teams, then yeah, we're we're going to find the solutions or the right solutions to provide the the jamming.
Speaker A
And the second question, I didn't pay attention. Uh yeah, if if there are any foreseen jamming scenarios already, and will those be discussed in advance? I think it your your first answer kind of answers that. Then the third
Speaker A
uh is where will the testing take place? Will we uh of course have relevant UAV flight licenses, but anything else to know about about UAV licenses?
Speaker A
Not not sure about this question. Can you think of anything? Yeah, I cannot disclose the exact location but regarding the the flight licenses, that yeah, there will be you'll have all the rights to to fly any drones.
Speaker A
That's good. And can we partner with another company to demonstrate our solution or do we need to bring everything ourselves? Of course, you can use a partner platform to demonstrate your your solution.
Speaker A
I think that answers it. Good. Thank you Simona. Our transportational and living costs covered or partially partially covered?
Speaker A
I think it also goes to you, Simona and Sven. Simona, do we want to start or should I Yeah, yeah, you you can start. I talked a lot.
Speaker A
Okay. All right. So, unfortunately, we cannot cover this kind of costs. We will cover catering and so everything around the site so with the challenges and so, but living costs cannot be covered, unfortunately.
Speaker A
Yes, on our side, we will cover the the accommodations and the living costs and also the the all all the meals and the only thing that we will not cover is the the transportation to the location.
Speaker A
Good. Thank you. All right. There is a comment about TRL level to be definite. We are looking at working prototypes looking to be field tested, iterated and validated with end users and mentors.
Speaker A
So, if if you have a low TRL level solution, you won't get the most value out of out of this Tech Tech Forge.
Speaker A
And maybe into comment on top of it that is always the tricky part to understand where you are. So, make sure that you describe this also very well that what's your actual level because we have seen during the previous events that some
Speaker A
some say that they have six or seven, but in reality we feel that maybe three or four in good case. And vice versa, some said they have six, but but you know.
Speaker A
And four and and in reality, you know, everything works really beautifully and can be already integrated. So, make sure that you provide the good information about your product when you apply.
Speaker A
Good. Thank you. Uh there are some questions about the German challenges. I think we we skipped over that a little bit. Sven, do you want to take 2 minutes to go over the this this slide?
Speaker A
People people were requesting that. Yes, sure. So, um yeah, as you can see these are the three challenges that we want to to offer. Um these challenges will be supported by the industrial partners. So, each partner will cover
Speaker A
one challenge, especially with mentors and experts. Uh some of them are actually from Ukraine. So, um there are there is a use case behind it. So, this is our um yeah, main offer from our side. It's there's always
Speaker A
a Yeah, I would say a lead mentor or a lead partner for each challenge. Um the most interesting thing is that even for one challenge, I guess it's challenge number five, there are even two partners who wants to separate uh themselves from
Speaker A
from each other. So, everyone will cover a different topic of it. And um yeah, that's that would be the the the approach. Military mentors will try to cover um yeah, each uh challenge um itself. So, this is uh kind of more on a
Speaker A
regular base. So, we are looking for uh at the moment we are looking for um I would say uh military lead mentors um especially uh for the different challenges, but um our partners are directly combined with uh the
Speaker A
challenges. All right. Thank you for that quick overview. I I hope the teams who are looking at Germany as their possible uh Def Tech Forge got what they needed. There's a question. I see that a lot of companies
Speaker A
who are already have ready products. What's the point of the hackathon? Should we create new device from zero?
Speaker A
Uh this is not your conventional hackathon. This is not the hackathon. This is a Def Tech Forge. We're looking for uh teams, uh companies who have uh a field test ready prototype uh in this case.
Speaker A
And also there are teams of 30-40 people. What's the the desired roles match up and amount of people that would will participate? Uh we saw teams with uh two people and up to eight people participate in in the
Speaker A
previous uh Def Tech Forges. So, it's it's uh up to you on on how you compile the team who will come on site.
Speaker A
What are the requirements to become a mentor? Is a current personal security clearance needed? Uh mentors have the same rules as citizens of EU, Norway, or Ukraine, and we're looking for specific uh defense domain knowledge.
Speaker A
Uh security clearance uh current uh security clearance is not needed. Is it okay to apply even if we participated in one of the previous Def Tech Forges? Yes, of course, you can apply.
Speaker A
Are you looking for some silver bullet solutions like unique drones for specific purposes or rather scalable proven solutions? For example, a business that produces fiber optic in EU with zero Chinese components.
Speaker A
Um Harry, do you do you have any input on that one? Well, at the end we are looking solutions against the challenges.
Speaker A
So, I would say the answer is a little bit depends. Depends what do you offer.
Speaker A
So, the best way to find it out is to apply and we have different experts doing the choices of the teams and evaluation of the teams.
Speaker A
And and this is the way you you will find out at the end because in different situations, different locations, different end users, there might be a little bit different things that are looked for.
Speaker A
But yes, mainly we are looking for rather new solutions which are not mass-produced yet.
Speaker A
So, if you are talking about a regular fiber optic optic drone, then probably this is not exactly the solution that would fit in. But again, I say it depends.
Speaker A
Thank you. Uh Are defense products are already at TRL 8 to 9 eligible for Def Tech Forges provided they require further adaptation, integration, or operational validation?
Speaker A
Yes, of course. Well, the the TRL level can can be brought. Each submission is evaluated independently.
Speaker A
Uh there's another question about the tech, uh, what will be available on site uh if maybe you can answer this Simona and and Sven if if there will be any 3D printers or or instruments for hardware or any software capabilities.
Speaker A
So, yes, from our side we are, um, currently we are, uh, talking with a different, uh, companies who wants to participate with a 3D printers. So, for, um, yeah, for hardware, um, they will there will be a solution. Um, this is, um,
Speaker A
at the moment, um, it is it is not not so easy to find the the best one, but there there will be a solution for printing hardware. Um, this is the same thing for software. Um, we are actually,
Speaker A
um, in discussions with our associated partners, uh, what they uh, want to bring in uh, this this events, um, but, um, it will be, um, connected to the the challenge. So, yes, um, um, software as well as hardware will
Speaker A
be uh provided. Simona, anything to add from the Romanian, uh, location about the any 3D printing or software capabilities?
Speaker A
Yes, there there are some of them, uh, and if we're going to see that again one of the teams that are selecting that need this we're going to we're going to make sure that there will be all the hardware and software
Speaker A
capabilities. All right, thank you. There are a couple of questions about how many teams, uh, will be accepted into each of the, uh, Def Tech Forges.
Speaker A
So, uh, we will accept, uh, around 20 teams to each of the, uh, Def Tech Forges. So, 40 applications, uh, uh, in in some.
Speaker A
Um that is it. Uh is the Romanian uh administration of communications aware about the frequency bands which will be used to operate the command and control similar line. I'm sure you have uh uh talked with with them.
Speaker A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's I think that it's already that is communicated and they they know the all the procedures are basically made um by by the location itself.
Speaker A
So, I mean it's not their first time, so. So, uh anonymous user be reassured that uh we we have spoken.
Speaker A
Uh there are more questions about the specific challenges. Uh I would say that uh please uh write to our message box uh on our website uh to uh open up a little more detail so we can uh help you specifically
Speaker A
uh about this and if you have any specific testing requirements, also you can drop us a message uh where we can we can answer your question uh which isn't more general.
Speaker A
Okay just checking here if we have missed anything as we're nearing the end. I it it seems like mostly we've we've answered most of the questions that have dropped into the Q&A.
Speaker A
Again, if you have any questions, please uh drop us a message on our website.
Speaker A
And from the team here, please apply until September 6th. Be thorough in your submission, and hope to see you at the next Def Tech Forges. Harry, do you have anything to add to the end here?
Speaker A
Uh no, I'm just really glad that so many people joined in and are interested in the initiative. I think it is extremely important initiative, and not just in order to be successfully running one of the bootcamps and having many
Speaker A
applications. No, we are looking all here for longer-term impact in general in the capabilities of the Europe and Ukraine together. So, please join in pitching your solutions. If not successful this time, pitch in next time again. We will give
Speaker A
some feedback as well as much as we can, and and I hope to see you on one of the locations.
Speaker A
Thank you very much. Have a nice afternoon, everybody. Goodbye.
Topics:DefTech ForcesEU Defencedefense innovationstartupsmilitary technologydefense challengesEuropean Defence Agencydefense grantsinnovation eventUkraine operational needs
