Clearing the Skies: Scaling Europe’s drone and counter-drone innovation

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Peace, Security & Defence

22Apr2026

starts 14:00

ends 15:00

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Europe is waking up to the strategic importance of drone and counter-drone capabilities, but the real challenge is no longer only technological. It is also industrial: how can promising companies move from prototype to procurement, from pilot projects to repeat demand, and from fragmented national markets to scalable European capability?

Ukraine’s wartime innovation model has shown that success now depends on short innovation cycles, rapid testing, and much closer links between end users, procurement and industry.

This discussion will explore how Europe can strengthen the route from innovation to deployment in unmanned and counter-unmanned systems, with a particular focus on testing, standards, procurement and industrial scale-up. It will also examine how Europe can break down the practical barriers that still slow investment, cross-border cooperation and the growth of new defence actors.

With AGILE, the European Commission has launched a new €115 million programme to help disruptive defence technologies move from the lab to the field at speed. It is the latest in a wider series of EU initiatives aimed at boosting defence readiness, strengthening industrial capacity and broadening support for startups, SMEs and other new defence players.

Europe needs to reduce friction, accelerate innovation uptake and align industrial policy more closely with the way modern battlefields are evolving. This event will ask what that means in practice for defence innovators, and how Europe can build a more credible innovation base in this field.

Related content:

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Insight | Europe at war: Friends of Europe’s warning shot
Podcast | Why is Europe at war and what needs to be done
Event | Embedding Ukraine’s defence know-how in EU defence planning and industrial strategy

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PHOTO CREDIT: Shutterstock| Es sarawuth

Schedule

14.00 15.00

Clearing the Skies: Scaling Europe’s drone and counter-drone innovation

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Guiding questions:

What can Europe learn from Ukraine about building faster links between innovators, end users and procurement?
How can EU instruments help promising drone and counter-drone technologies move from innovation to operational capability at scale?
Which barriers most urgently need to be removed if European firms are to scale unmanned capabilities more effectively?

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Speakers

Valeriya Ionan currently serves as Advisor to the Minister of Defence of Ukraine and Advisor to the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, focusing on innovation, digitalisation, and building global partnerships to scale Ukraine’s technology and innovation ecosystem. She is a government and business innovator working at the intersection of public sector transformation, emerging technologies, and global partnerships. From 2019 to 2025, Ionan served as Deputy Minister for Digital Transformation of Ukraine, where she led key national initiatives in innovation, entrepreneurship, education, and international cooperation. During this time, she spearheaded the development of flagship initiatives, including Diia.Business, Diia.Education, CDTO Campus, Digital State UA, and GGTC Kyiv, launched in partnership with the World Economic Forum’s C4IR Network. She also coordinated international partnerships and represented Ukraine in negotiations on the EU accession chapter on Digital and Media. Ionan is the architect of Ukraine’s Global Innovation Strategy — WINWIN, aimed at positioning Ukraine as a global hub for technology, defence innovation, and entrepreneurship. She has also contributed to launching and scaling initiatives such as Brave1, United24 Media, and other innovation-driven projects connecting Ukraine with global partners.

Thomas Van Vynckt is Friends of Europe’s Head of Peace, Security and Defence, which includes the Ukraine Initiative launched in 2023. Prior to joining Friends of Europe, he worked in the defence industry in the private sector in London (UK) and at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, both in the Political Affairs and Security Policy (PASP) and the Operations (Ops) divisions. Earlier in his career, Van Vynckt also worked with GLOBSEC in Bratislava and the Post-Conflict Research Center in Sarajevo. He holds an MSC from Aberdeen University and an MA from King’s College London.

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