NATO STO marks 10th anniversary with special event in Brussels

NATO’s Science and Technology Organization (STO) celebrated its 10th anniversary on 19 September, bringing together representatives from Allied and Partner Nations, NATO civilian and military leadership, and members of the STO community for a special event at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

In remarks delivered at the anniversary event, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mr Mircea Geoană highlighted the important role that the STO will play in meeting future challenges to the Alliance, and in implementing the NATO Strategic Concept 2022. Mr Geoană delivered his remarks as part of a conference on how the STO has evolved over the past decade, and the work it does today to maintain NATO’s technological edge. He also described STO scientists as “the brightest of the brightest of NATO’s ecosystem”.

The conference featured insights from NATO Chief Scientist Dr Bryan Wells; Dr Catherine Warner, Director of the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE); Mr John-Mikal Størdal, Director of the STO Collaboration Support Office; Prof Dr Maurus Tacke, former Director of  the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation; and Major General (ret.) Albert Husniaux, who was the first NATO Chief Scientist and played a key role in establishing the STO ten years ago.  
    
During his intervention, Dr Wells emphasised the key role that the STO members and the STO staff have played in supporting the Alliance through enhanced cooperation and collaboration between Nations and Partners on defence- and security-related research.

“Over the last ten years the STO has delivered scientific excellence for the Nations and NATO,” Dr Wells said. “It has proved itself proactive to in anticipating new requirements, such as climate change science, proactive in identifying emerging technical areas, and resilient to strategic shock, such as COVID-19.”
 
The anniversary event included a poster exhibition supported by the three STO executive bodies: the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS), the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) and the Collaboration Support Office (CSO) through the STO Panels and Group.

The STO was formed in 2012, as part of an organisational reform that combined the Research Technology Organization and the NATO Undersea Research Centre – renamed the CMRE – and created a new branch, the Office of the Chief Scientist, to facilitate efficient and direct scientific communication with NATO leadership in Brussels.

Today, the STO brings together more than 5,000 researchers from over 40 NATO and Partner Nations to form the world’s largest defence-related collaborative scientific network. Through the STO Collaborative Programme of Work, this network delivers more than 300 research activities each year across a broad range of fields. More recently, STO’s research has been at the forefront of NATO’s work on emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) and has helped inform NATO’s new chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) defence policy.  ​

Published by STO

26/09/2022