Message from the Assistant Deputy Minister (Science and Technology)

I am very pleased to issue this inaugural report for the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program. Strong, Secure, Engaged, Canada’s defence policy, places an emphasis on the  need for  continual innovation across all  Department of National Defence (DND) and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) activities; IDEaS is a great tool to achieve this. IDEaS provides the Defence Team with a focused means of accessing innovation and is a direct complement to other longstanding DND research programs.

IDEaS will continue to make new and existing innovators aware of DND and CAF defence and security problems. Extensive consultations will influence and refine those hard problems into challenges which allow innovators to see how their expertise might provide the DND/CAF with cutting-edge solutions. Through IDEaS, DND will provide the necessary funding and guidance to mature those innovative solutions into products, or integrate them into existing S&T programs which will include extensive collaboration with allied nations. DND/CAF is already benefiting greatly from the extraordinary talent and ingenuity of innovators across Canada.

IDEaS has accomplished a great deal in its first year of operation. It has engaged with academia, industry, for-profit and non-profit sectors, and other levels of government to put many innovative solutions into action. The response to the program has been excellent and its continual refinement will ensure that DND/CAF defence capabilities will remain on the leading edge. I am proud of what has been achieved in this past year across all of the research programs within ADM Science and Technology (S&T) and for the synergy that IDEaS investment has brought to overall S&T and innovation capabilities.

Isabelle Desmartis
Assistant Deputy Minister (Science & Technology)/
Chief Executive Officer of Defence Research and Development Canada
Department of National Defence