On 14 October the 5th Armed Forces Innovation Forum took place. This Ministry of National Defence initiative is a meeting platform for the army, science and industry. As in previous years, the Forum was organised by the Ministry’s Innovation Department in cooperation with the Military University of Technology (WAT) and was opened by Brig. Gen. Prof. Przemysław WACHULAK, Rector-Commandant of WAT.

He was followed by Secretary of State at the Ministry of National Defence Cezary TOMCZYK, who recalled that this year’s defence funds — in the budget and the Armed Forces Support Fund — amount to PLN 200 billion; the funds provisionally allocated to Poland under the EU SAFE programme (PLN 43.7 billion) should also be taken into account. Citing the “unequivocal” lessons from Ukraine and earlier wars, he stressed that innovation can change their outcome and that unmanned weapon systems may play exactly that role.
 The minister also announced the establishment of the OSA Autonomous Systems Centre, which is to bring together all the capabilities of today’s military institutes — so that institutes holding many patents can meet in one place with the military, i.e. the end user, as well as with companies.

The establishment of a “permanent experimentation unit” to test new equipment and kit was announced by the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, Gen. Wiesław KUKUŁA. The new unit, which would also serve as a link with industry, would report to the Transformation Command, whose creation the Chief of the General Staff advocates.
In his speech, the Director of the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR), Prof. Jerzy MAŁACHOWSKI, referred to the PERUN call for funding defence projects, whose results were delayed due to a higher-than-expected number of applicants and insufficient funds for evaluating the submitted projects. 

Then, during two panels, representatives of the defence ministry, public administration, research centres and the industrial sector discussed: “Unmanned systems and short technology life cycles — challenges for the Polish Armed Forces” and “Alliance security in the age of innovation — the role of the East Shield”. 
The Dualtec Cluster was the only cluster invited to take an active part in the panel discussions. Cluster representatives also presented their technological achievements at an exhibition stand.

On behalf of all the companies, we would like to express our gratitude and thank the Innovation Department of the Ministry of National Defence for the invitation to this Innovation Forum, in particular General Marcin Górka and Colonel Tomasz Zaremba