Anita Friend: Bolstering innovation and readiness into defence

December 2, 2025

Bolstering innovation and readiness into defence

National security is fundamentally about protecting our people and our values. Innovation sits at the heart of this mission and supporting the innovation ecosystem is more vital than ever.

We’re witnessing the return of strategic competition between nation states. Our adversaries are investing heavily in new technologies and processes, constantly seeking to gain the upper hand. This reality means we cannot afford to be reactive. We must stay ahead, maintaining both strategic and operational advantage through innovation to harness the potential within our industrial and academic base better and quicker than our adversaries.

The innovation imperative

So, what do we mean by innovation? Simply put, innovation is about generating new ideas and putting them into practice to give us an edge over our adversaries. It’s not just about developing new technologies (although that’s certainly important). it’s about exploiting ideas to achieve real, measurable impact.

But here’s the crucial point: technology is only valuable if we know how to use it in ways that bring genuine benefit. This requires something special – a fusion of scientific and technological expertise with strategic and operational frontline knowledge. Innovation also only delivers value if it can be implemented at scale and pace, which means the business behind the idea and the partnerships between suppliers and government are absolutely critical.

Breaking down barriers

We recognise that barriers to engagement exist in our current system. That’s why the Defence and Security Accelerator, part of UK Defence Innovation (UKDI-DASA), is working actively to overcome them. We’re raising awareness of defence and security challenges, helping provide clear demand signals to innovators and enabling suppliers to understand exactly how they can contribute by matching innovative ideas to genuine end-user needs.

Crucially, we’re reaching out to non-traditional suppliers and working to level the playing field. The next breakthrough idea isn’t the sole preserve of government or traditional defence contractors. We need to access the widest possible range of innovators, drawing on scientific, technological, and entrepreneurial expertise from across the spectrum from prime contractors and SMEs to micro-businesses and academia.

Building an inclusive ecosystem

This approach requires us to ensure our innovation ecosystem is truly inclusive and encourages collaboration at every level. We’re forming partnerships across industry, academia, and government because we know that bringing together innovators with policy makers and capability owners produces the best results.

The key is engaging with innovators throughout their journey to ensure outputs genuinely meet operational requirements. We’re bringing end-users into the innovation process much earlier and maintaining engagement throughout the entire innovation journey. This approach ensures we achieve effective pull-through and successful translation of research into operational capability.

DASA's role and impact

For those unfamiliar with UKDI-DASA, we find and fund exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security. We run funding competitions addressing specific challenges faced by government stakeholders – both targeted, time-bound themed competitions and through our also through our enduring Open Call programme.

Since our establishment in 2016, we’ve evolved significantly. We’ve moved beyond simply finding and funding innovation to providing comprehensive support for the businesses behind the innovations, helping them grow and scale their technologies effectively.

The impact of this approach is now clearly measurable. DASA’s Impact Report 2025 with Beauhurst demonstrates how our support for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises is delivering significant benefits for both national security and economic growth.

The numbers are compelling:

  • UKDI-DASA-funded innovators generated £972 million in Gross Value Added between 2019 and 2023
  • Companies receiving UKDI-DASA funding secured an additional £592 million in equity investment (with £174 million raised in 2024 alone)
  • UKDI-DASA-funded companies created 1,842 new jobs as they expanded their operations
 

In addition, many UKDI-DASA-funded SMEs are now actively engaged in both domestic and international markets, demonstrating both the broad scope of our support and the global relevance of UK defence and security innovation.

Looking forward: UK Defence Innovation

The establishment of UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) represents a significant commitment to defence innovation and is a tremendous opportunity for defence innovation to have real, lasting impact on the future of defence. But realising this opportunity requires all of us to work together – government, industry, academia, entrepreneurs, and innovators of every kind.

Now as part of UKDI, we remain focused on addressing fragmentation in the innovation system, supporting dual-use technologies, and ensuring business growth is factored into the development of new defence and security capabilities.

The future of our national security depends on the UK’s ability to innovate faster, smarter, and more collaboratively than ever before and we look forward to continuing on our mission to achieve this.

Anita Friend 

Head of the Defence and Security Accelerator, part of UK Defence Innovation (UKDI-DASA)