Technology is increasingly crossing the traditional boundary between civilian and defense applications, challenging researchers to think beyond the lab and recognize the full real-world potential of their innovations. Through our new SPIN: Rise Evolve DualTech pre-incubation program, implemented by Verhaert Strategic Innovation in partnership with 28 DIGITAL. The program supports researchers in developing an entrepreneurial mindset and building solutions for real-world deployment. The program offers expert guidance on commercialization strategies, regulatory pathways, funding access, ecosystem integration and technical readiness—ensuring that dual-use technologies can responsibly and effectively transition from discovery to real-world adaptation and impact.
Technology transcending boundaries
Cutting-edge technologies are increasingly dissolving the traditional divide between civilian and defense applications, creating shared innovation pathways and accelerating progress across both domains. Dual-use technologies are those developed with a primary purpose in one sector but capable of delivering significant value in another. This convergence reflects a larger trend: challenges in society and security are becoming more interconnected, and the solutions required are often technologically similar.
Dual-use innovation is becoming a key driver of technological progress, economic resilience and strategic capability. This enables industry to benefit from high-performance technologies traditionally associated with defense, while defense ecosystems gain access to the agility, creativity and entrepreneurial drive found in commercial and academic research environments. Dual-use technologies are advancing innovation and strengthening both societal well-being and security readiness.
What is dual-use technology?
Dual-use technology is about innovations that are designed for civilian use but also possess the capability to be applied in defense or security. The defining feature is not the technology itself, but its adaptability across sectors. A single development, whether software, hardware, material or scientific method, can support public benefit while also enhancing national security, operational resilience or strategic capability.
The strength of dual-use technologies lies in their scalability and adaptability. A single technology breakthrough can now impact multiple sectors, from public health to national security, from energy to space exploration. Therefore, broadening their market potential but also accelerating innovation cycles, allowing research to translate more rapidly into practical solutions.
Here are some examples:
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Powering predictive analytics in healthcare, smart manufacturing, and environmental monitoring, while also enabling advanced surveillance, targeting, and autonomous defense systems.
- Drones and autonomous systems: Transforming logistics, agriculture, and filmmaking, while equally essential for reconnaissance, border monitoring, and tactical support.
- Cybersecurity: Safeguarding personal data and critical infrastructure, and forming a foundational component of national defense, intelligence operations, and digital resilience.
- Advanced materials: Used in lightweight composites for commercial aviation, consumer electronics, and renewable energy systems, as well as in high-strength armour, aerospace components, and protective equipment.
- Biotechnology: Driving breakthroughs in disease treatment, diagnostics, and public health, while also enabling biodefense, rapid-response medical countermeasures, and resilience against emerging biological threats.
Dual-use highlights the shared technological foundations that can serve multiple sectors. Making dual-use technology a very powerful catalyst for economic growth, cross-sector collaboration, and strategic autonomy. Allowing government, industry, and research institutions to leverage investment more efficiently, collaboratively and ultimately ensuring that advancements in one domain strengthen capability in another.
Why researchers need to think like entrepreneurs
Moving dual-use research from concept to meaningful real-world capability isn’t just a question of scientific rigor—it demands strategic awareness, adaptability, and a willingness to engage beyond the traditional academic sphere. While academic outputs remain essential, they represent only the first step in realizing the broader impact of an innovation. To ensure that research reaches its full potential beyond the laboratory, researchers must also understand how their work can be positioned, developed, and deployed in real-world environments across multiple sectors.
This is where an entrepreneurial mindset becomes critical. It enables researchers to think not only about what they have developed, but who it is for, why it matters, and how it can be brought to market responsibly. Beyond scientific excellence, dual-use innovation requires navigating funding landscapes, compliance and regulatory requirements, partnerships with industry or government, and the practical steps from prototype development to scalable implementation.
Closing the research-to-market gap
Many strong innovations stall in the lab because commercialization requires skills beyond research. Pairing scientific expertise with entrepreneurial thinking allows technologies to move from prototypes to viable, market-ready solutions.
Recognizing broader opportunities
An entrepreneurial mindset helps researchers identify multiple use cases, engage with industry, and align their innovations with real market and end-user needs across both civilian and defense domains.
Navigating regulatory and ethical complexity
Dual-use technologies often involve sensitive legal and ethical considerations. Entrepreneurial awareness supports informed decision-making, responsible development, and compliance from the start.
Accelerating real-world impact
When researchers actively drive development—securing funding, forming partnerships, and building implementation pathways—their work reaches users faster, which is especially critical in defense and public-sector contexts.
Strengthening investment and talent attraction
Clear commercialization potential makes research more compelling to investors, industry partners, and skilled collaborators, enabling stronger ecosystems around emerging technologies.
Enabling cross-sector collaboration
Dual-use innovation depends on collaboration between academia, government, and industry. Entrepreneurial researchers are better positioned to build and sustain the partnerships required to bring solutions to scale.
Researchers can cultivate this mindset by gaining a foundational understanding of business, market dynamics, finance, and intellectual property; building networks with investors, industry leaders, policymakers, and fellow entrepreneurs; and embracing calculated risk-taking and iterative learning. It also involves applying problem-solving skills to real-world challenges and communicating the value and potential of their technology clearly to a diverse audience.
28 DIGITAL x Verhaert
We are proud to partner with 28 DIGITAL to provide this much-needed support to researchers and highlight the strategic importance of dual-use technologies. The intersection of cutting-edge science and dual-use innovation holds exceptional potential, opening pathways for meaningful real-world impact. When researchers adopt an entrepreneurial approach, they can move their breakthroughs from concept to tangible solutions that address both civilian and defense needs—shaping a future where their work serves a broader purpose. The journey from scientific discovery to societal benefit is fundamentally entrepreneurial, and researchers are at the center of this transformation.
Check out Verhaert Strategic Innovation‘s new pre-incubator program ‘SPIN: Rise Evolve DualTech‘, in partnership with 28 DIGITAL’s SPIN: Rise initiative, which will support researchers across Europe with hands-on entrepreneurship learnings and mentoring.