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Looking ahead to 2026
Building on ongoing work and recent outputs, the Committee will advance a new programme of reports in 2026. The abstracts below outline the planned areas of focus and the key issues guiding the Committee’s work in the year ahead. ↓
Research Security: Protecting Research and Innovation in an Era of Strategic Competition (General report)
By Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord GYLFADOTTIR (Iceland)
Allied countries lead the world with top research institutions and are increasing investments in R&D with defence applications. Protecting the Alliance’s knowledge base is increasingly urgent in today's era of strategic competition and geopolitical challenges. As China has emerged as a decisive enabler of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Allies must make sure that NATO’s technological edge does not inadvertently bolster China’s defence research and industrial base through undesirable knowledge transfers. Allies must examine how to balance scientific diplomacy, academic freedom, and rapid adoption with research security in the contemporary strategic landscape. Research security is primarily a national responsibility, but the Alliance’s research and knowledge base is only as strongly protected as its weakest link. This report will map out critical risks in current approaches to research security and offer overarching take-aways and concrete measures legislators across the Alliance can take to advance research security.
We Can DEW It: Directed Energy Weapons for Allied Air Defence (Special Report)
By Zan MAHNIC (Slovenia)
Russia’s war against Ukraine and incursions into Allied airspace with uncrewed systems reveal the transforming nature of warfare. Russia and other actors have used low-cost drones in high volumes to overwhelm traditional air defence systems and interceptors, creating a significant cost asymmetry between drones and the current systems used to defend against them. This creates challenges at the tactical level, but in strategic terms this makes it “cheap to attack and expensive to defend”. This cost asymmetry makes NATO and Allies’ current responses to uncrewed warfare unsustainable in the long run. Therefore, NATO and Allies are investing in more cost-effective responses, like Directed Energy Weapons (DEW). This report will serve as a knowledge base setter for legislative bodies across the Alliance, with a special focus on recommendations for Allies who may not be developing their own DEWs.
Maximising Allied ROI: Defence Innovation Ecosystem Financing and Procurement during an Age of Strategic Competition (STCTTS Report)
By Sven CLEMENT (Luxembourg)
On both sides of the Atlantic, defence tech startups face challenges scaling up, and often experience “the valley of death”, the difficult period between developing a prototype and achieving commercialisation and long-term government contracts. Barriers in securing agile funding harm the efficacy of translating Allies’ increased defence investments into improved and innovative defence and deterrence capabilities. NATO and Allies’ ability to lead in research, development and production of innovative defence technologies is the backbone of Allied deterrence and defence. With most modern defence innovation being driven by the private sector, it is necessary for Allies to have sufficient and agile sources of capital to invest in defence innovation companies, especially SMEs and startups, and help these firms scale up. This report will explore the major hurdles to procurement and commercialisation across the Alliance and provide recommendations on best practice.
The full reports will be published following their adoption at the Annual Session.
For a deeper understanding of the Committee’s recent policy work, explore the Committee’s 2025 reports below. ↓
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