The international growth moment: UK defence innovation is entering a period of sustained demand and global integration. The Aerospace, Defence, Space and Security market has grown strongly, and defence is positioned as a core growth driver within the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy alongside AI and digital technology. For founders, this is a commercial moment: international collaboration is anchoring the UK into high-value programmes (SSN-AUKUS, GCAP with Japan and Italy, NATO’s DIANA tech accelerator, bilateral deals with France and Germany), while NATO’s €1bn Innovation Fund backs frontier areas like AI, robotics, and space—already benefiting UK firms. 

This keynote will address the following 4 themes: 

⦁ Academic excellence, and spinouts as a growth catalyst

⦁ From discovery to deployment: making capability travel and translate into a defence context

⦁ Ecosystem enablers and regional clusters

⦁ A practical playbook for international scaling dual use technology.