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About the Frontier Mission Network
The Frontier Mission Network is a nonprofit organization serving the region’s national security sector, including research laboratories, startups and small- and medium-sized businesses, capital investors, and federal acquisitions authorities. We provide a unified process to bring inventions from the lab to the commercial and defense markets, catalyzing growth of alternative defense suppliers and developing technologies of critical importance to our national security and the security of America’s allies. In a time of heightened geopolitical tensions and power competition, the Frontier Mission Network provides partners an avenue to actively support American interests.
Our Support
The Frontier Mission Network builds a bridge from the region's research laboratories to the American national security community. We help license inventions, prove concepts, build products, and transition technologies into the hands of the U.S. military and the U.S. intelligence community. We provide programmatic engagement with small-and medium-sized defense tech suppliers. We mobilize stakeholders to support tech firms to co-develop technologies and participate in the defense procurement process. And we identify and educate capital firms who could provide long-term, patient capital in the defense tech space.
Research
Commercialization
Federal Grant Support
Product Development
Investor Engagement
We connect researchers with the national security community. We provide regular showcase events featuring inventors discussing their research, and with stakeholders gathered in the room, explore potential commercial and defense applications. And we support the licensing technologies from laboratories to small businesses and startups.
We inform small businesses, startups, corporate partners, and regional stakeholders of Department of Defense strategic needs. We identify and update partners on federal and Department of Defense grant opportunities, deadlines, and requirements. We provide counsel and writing support to small businesses and startups with technologies of potential defense applications, and we facilitate regional stakeholder support.
We help startups and small businesses to scope defense needs and test solutions with defense users. We engage with defense acquisitions authorities on operational requirements. We also leverage relationships with corporate partners to identify commercial uses of technologies.
We engage Chicago-based financial institutions, family offices, and corporations and brief investors on potential for value creation in defense tech sector, and outline funding requirements. We also engage with federal and Department of Defense sources of later-stage capital. We help broker financing of early-stage firms in the region that are developing technologies of critical national interests.
