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Ukraine and Norway Sign Deal to Fund Defense Startups With $21.8M Brave-Norway Program
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![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
Ukraine and Norway are launching a new $21.8 million program to develop advanced defense technologies under a joint initiative called Brave-Norway, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov announced on October 9.
According to Fedorov, the program was formalized through a memorandum of cooperation between Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and Norway’s Ministry of Defense—a strategic partnership aimed at fostering innovation in the defense sector.
The Brave-Norway program will provide grant support for startups developing new technologies in the fields of UAVs and other defense innovations, organize joint hackathons to find practical battlefield solutions, and create modern platforms for integrating research institutions.
Ukraine’s Brave1 defense innovation cluster will serve as the implementing partner. Norway will contribute $10.9 million to the Innovation Development Fund, which will finance grant programs for the creation of battlefield “game changers”—technologies that will be tested directly in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is expanding its international defense technology cooperation through a new partnership with TNO, the Netherlands’ leading research institute, to develop innovations with the potential to become battlefield game-changers.
“Expanding cooperation with European partners in the research and development sphere is the path to breakthrough innovations for the battlefield. We already have cases where Ukrainian engineers, together with the international scientific community, have created technologies that will very soon change the course of the war,” Fedorov wrote.
Earlier, it was reported that Ukraine will roll out several large-scale grant programs focused on boosting domestic production of explosives, autonomous drones, and various rocket systems.
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