Triple Helix: An Academic-Policy-Industry Partnership for Defence innovation and Analysis (“Triple Helix”) is a network composed of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI), the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) at Carleton University, and industry that will explore how a range of emerging technologies intersect with defence.

Directed by Dr. David Perry (CGAI), Dr. Alex Wilner (NPSIA), and Michael Petric, Triple Helix will be a hub that will:

• think creatively about emerging technology;
• link developments therein to Canadian defence strategy, policy, and planning;
• facilitate the establishment of a pan-Canadian research across academia, think tanks, and industry dedicated to promoting research excellence; and,
• develop working relationships with researchers, practitioners, and industry in Five Eyes countries in order to draw international lessons for Canada on how allied states are applying emerging technologies to their own defence priorities and needs.

Our objective is to provide an empirically driven and practically oriented guide on the interplay between technology, innovation, security, defence, and policy useful to Canadian policymakers and private sector actors alike, as well as to identify paths to and foster greater cooperation between government, academia, think tanks and industry in the areas of emerging technologies and innovation.

Four overarching and related research questions animate our network. First, what is the impact of emerging technologies on force development with respect to connected battlespace? Second, what policy instruments and cooperation mechanisms exist to support allied military interoperability and connectivity among defence coalitions? Third, how do emerging communications and related space and cyber technologies, including synthetic environments, effect both the public and the defence sector, and how can these enhanced capabilities participate in shaping a global, dispersed, and resilient connected battlespace? And fourth, how do these technologies, policy instruments and enhanced capabilities strengthen continental defence? To date, there is very little Canadian transdisciplinary scholarship that spans academia, public policy, and industry on any of these research questions. Triple Helix seeks to close that gap.

Our research outputs will look to respond to three central defence policy challenges: “Emerging Technologies and Military Application,” “Cyber, Space and Information as Operational Domains,” and “Securing North America and Enhancing Continental Defence.” Diversity, equity and inclusion, the principles of Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+), as well as building the next generation of defence professionals, will guide our operations, activities, and outputs.