This week, Invest Ottawa welcomed defence attachés representing 20+ allied nations for a dedicated briefing on Canada’s Defence Innovation Hub in Ottawa.
The session brought together international representatives to learn more about how Ottawa’s Defence Innovation Hub is strengthening Canada’s defence innovation ecosystem and accelerating the development of dual-use technologies, and deepening collaboration with allies at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty.
This gathering was an opportunity to gain early insights into the Hub’s mission, the 10 goals established in the national defence innovation strategy, and a chance to explore avenues for bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
Participants also received an overview of Ottawa’s role as a NATO Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) Test Centre, including how allied nations and industry partners can engage with testing infrastructure, innovation pathways, and collaborative development opportunities.
Ottawa – Canada’s Innovation Hub
Attachés also gained insights on why Canada’s Capital Region is the natural home for a national defence innovation hub.
Ottawa–Gatineau is the only region in the country where national defence leadership, global diplomacy and policy makers, security-cleared institutions, federal research capacity, and a dense defence technology ecosystem of innovators operate side by side.
The Capital Region is home to Canada’s defence, security, intelligence, and financial governance institutions, as well as a growing network of defence, aerospace, cyber, space, and dual-use technology companies delivering real-world capabilities for Canada and its allies.
This proximity matters. For allied partners, it enables direct engagement with innovators, operators, policymakers, and test environments in one place. For Canadian companies, the unique regional work to attribute accelerates collaboration, validation, and deployment.
The region is home to:
- Over 330 Defence, Aerospace and Cybersecurity companies
- 130 Embassies
- 4 NATO DIANA facilities
- 65+ Federal labs
- Close to 100,000 tech workers
- 10,000 highly skilled defence and security staff
- And the highest tech talent concentration in North America at 12%.
A Timely Conversation
The briefing comes at a moment of accelerating defence investment and renewed focus on sovereignty.
As allies accelerate their work to modernize capabilities and strengthen resilience, Ottawa’s defence innovation community is positioned to play a practical role in connecting innovation to operational needs.
- More information on Canada’s Defence Innovation Hub and Ottawa’s Defence Innovation Strategy is available at dihub.ca.
Shoebox enables hearing care around the world. It creates, sells, and supports products that help clinicians identify hearing loss. The maker of Shoebox, Clearwater Clinical, hit a huge milestone in 2018 when they entered a strategic partnership with international hearing device company 
Transforming our data-driven world takes talent, and MindBridge is where it’s happening. This is where you’ll take artificial intelligence to enable and inspire humans to do more and be better. Our people, our customers, and our investors agree: No one else is accomplishing what we’re doing with data-driven AI right now. 
Tehama is enabling the digital workplace of the future. 150 companies are using Tehama. 600,000+ hours of IT services delivered. Zero breaches. The company’s head office is in the heart of the highly desirable Westboro neighborhood of Ottawa where you have your pick of the best of Ottawa’s cafes, restaurants and shops. Prefer to work from home? Tehama offers remote working options and flexible core hours. Join a team of the best and brightest and enjoy competitive salaries, benefits and a commitment to YOUR long-term success. 
Spartan Bioscience aspires to unleash the power of DNA testing for everyone. Like the Spartan warriors of Ancient Greece, our smart, hard-working, and honorable team members get things done. Learn