Underinvestment in defence has left the UK vulnerable, Tanya Suarez, CEO, IoT Tribe

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5 • 6 Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tanya Suarez, chief executive of IoT Tribe and head of the JANUS consortium, discusses why UK defence underinvestment has left the country vulnerable, the rising danger from international actors and the surprisingly thriving startup ecosystem in the defence tech sector.

IoT Tribe is an accelerator group that was appointed by the government’s Defence and Security Accelerator to run programmes for startups in the space. IoT Tribe leads the group of specialist organisations called JANUS, the UK participant in NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We haven't been spending enough on defence.
0:10.0	Our industrial policy, which is the backbone of defence, has suffered from years and years and years of underinvestment.
0:17.0	And now we're realising, oops, we don't have the capability to even produce
0:22.9	enough munitions if we need them. There are lots of ways in which adversaries can come in and
0:31.2	essentially steal what we're doing. And they do that through espionage, but they're also doing it
0:36.9	through downright, you know,
0:38.1	copying of patents. If through a defence lens, we are able to develop AI that is more ethical
0:47.2	and can help with some other social problems that we have, then that's going to be a really
0:53.2	positive spinover. problems that we have, then that's going to be a really positive split over.
0:58.8	From the first time founders to the funds that back them, innovation needs different.
1:04.4	Our episode partner, HSBC Innovation Banking, is proud to accelerate growth for tech and life
1:10.6	science businesses, creating
1:12.3	meaningful connections and opening up a world of opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors alike.
1:18.6	Discover more at www.h.hbc Innovationbanking.com slash EN dashGB.
1:29.3	Hello and welcome to the UKTM podcast, a weekly chat with the movers and shakers of the UK
1:35.0	tech industry and the destination for all things UK tech related.
1:39.2	I'm your host, Jane Wakefield, and today I'm joined by Dr. Tanya Suarez, the CEO of IOT Tribe, a deep tech
1:46.9	accelerator, and the head of the Janus Consortium, which promotes technologies for both
1:51.7	the defense and commercial applications and works alongside the defense and security accelerator.
1:57.9	Welcome, Tanya. Thank you, Jane. It's lovely to be here with you. That was an awful
2:01.6	lot of words that I said there. You wear a lot of hats. So should we start by you
2:07.9	explaining a little bit about how those things all sort of interconnect and maybe a little bit
	...

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