IO+ Week: The uncomfortable truth of war as a testing ground
Our weekly overview offers an overview of the most interesting stories around key innovations every Sunday.
Published on November 23, 2025
Bart, co-founder of Media52 and Professor of Journalism oversees IO+, events, and Laio. A journalist at heart, he keeps writing as many stories as possible.
“Ukraine is a battlefield, but also a living lab”
What this sober - and fully justified - observation means for the people currently working on innovations to get our defense in order became painfully clear this week during the Blue Magic Netherlands event. A full day in which drone manufacturers, AI developers, sensor innovators, military strategists, and investors tried to catch up with each other on the steps needed to keep our world safe. Understandably, Ukraine was a constant theme in all the pitches, discussions, and panel reflections. This time, not as a place of enormous human suffering, but more as a unique real-time innovation environment: an area that accelerates development cycles, demonstrates the viability of products, and opens up new markets for dual-use and defense technologies.
We got a picture of the war in Ukraine as a catalyst. Not as a humanitarian emergency, but as a commercial horizon. Not as suffering, but as a testing ground.
I am not naive: this approach is absolutely practical. It may even be necessary in a dangerous geopolitical moment. But it is also very uncomfortable. As defense and dual-use ecosystems accelerate, innovate, and scale up globally, often directly inspired by active war zones, the question remains: at what point does military innovation cease to be a response to conflict and become dependent on it? Blue Magic Netherlands was not the place to answer that question. But let's not forget to ask it.
Here is my report on the event: When war becomes a market: Blue Magic and the Ukrainian testing ground
And, of course, we also discussed the actual developments in a more businesslike tone:
- VDL Defentec: ‘NewBorn’ new Dutch defense production center
- DIANA wants to convert European innovations into military capacity
- Cooperation as a basis: defense innovation redesigned
- ...and in the coming weeks, we will also be paying close attention to the many pitches given by startups during the event. They provided a clear picture of our country's status and ambition in the field of defense technology.
WATT MATTERS IN AI
Wednesday is the day: our Watt Matters in AI conference is about to start. A day full of inspiring lectures, presentations, and discussions about how we can reduce the energy consumption of AI systems. Because we now know that the energy problem of AI is enormous. We simply cannot build nuclear reactors fast enough to keep up with the growth of AI. So we need other solutions – and that is what will be on the table at our conference on November 26.
There are still a few tickets available. All information and a registration link can be found here: WATTMATTERSINAI.EU
A selection of other highlights from this week:
- The solution to the housing shortage: ‘Train more engineers’
- Media call for policy to safeguard information landscape
- Europe's technological future reaches a turning point
- AI model creates wound reports based on photos
- A look inside Radboudumc shows: AI is much more than just hype
- Universities launch new IP standard for spin-offs
- Prevo Biotech: Manipulating nature for better food
- Study: 700 ships will sail with Allseas nuclear reactors in 2050
- Invisible, yet visible: detecting drones ‘around the corner’
- What exactly is a patent? And why would you want one?
A podcast every day
We keep saying it: every morning at 6:30 a.m. (on weekdays), a new podcast is waiting for you. In it, our AI colleagues Oliver and Shelby discuss the two most interesting topics of the day. This makes the IO+ Daily the ideal way to fill your head with optimistic news from the world of innovation and technology. Tomorrow too.
ioplus daily podcast trailer
Our other newsletters
Thank you for reading this newsletter. But we have more to offer. Signing up is very easy, for example via the option block on the IO+ homepage.
But you can also just click on your favorite newsletter below:
- IO+ Daily (1,200 members)
- Mauro's Green Corner (monthly, 13,800 members)
- Elcke's Saturday Data Dive (monthly, 20,550 members)
- Elcke and Mauro's BIO+ Bites (monthly, 29,300 members)
- Bart's Saturday CHIPS (monthly, 16,300 members)
Enjoy this Sunday and don't forget that a new episode of IO+ Daily will be waiting for you tomorrow morning at 6:30 a.m. Be prepared before you hop on your bike!