National Strategies
Our investment decisions are strategically aligned with a suite of National Security and Defence directives that shape the UK's direction.
When seeking to work with NSSIF or wider government, start-ups should consider how their product fits within the government’s key priorities.
National Security & Defence
The Strategic Defence Review 2025 - Making Britain Safer: secure at home, strong abroad
The Strategic Defence Review examines the UK’s Defence capabilities amidst a new era of threat and determines how to best transform defence over the next decade to move to warfighting readiness.
Technology is a critical part of scaling the UK’s Defence, including learning the innovation lessons from Ukraine and deepening our partnership with industry.
National Security Strategy 2025: Security for the British People in a Dangerous World - GOV.UK
The UK Government’s National Security Strategy 2025 sets out a bold framework to protect the British people in an increasingly volatile world, focusing on resilience at home, influence abroad, and sovereign capability. It highlights the importance of investing in strategic technologies and rebuilding the UK’s defence industrial base.
Notably, NSSIF is featured as a key tool for backing deep tech innovation and ensuring the UK maintains a competitive edge in critical areas like AI, quantum, and advanced materials.
The UK Government’s Industrial Strategy 2025 sets out a 10-year plan to drive business investment and innovation across eight high-growth sectors, each supported by tailored Sector Plans.
The strategy focuses on simplifying investment processes, leveraging national strengths, and providing long-term stability for UK businesses. NSSIF is highlighted as a key mechanism for backing cutting-edge technologies and strengthening the UK’s sovereign industrial capabilities.
Defence Industrial Strategy 2025: Making Defence an Engine for Growth - GOV.UK
The Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 is the UK government's vision to transform defence into a powerful driver of national growth and innovation. It emphasizes the need to adapt to a new era of global threats by reforming procurement, accelerating innovation, and expanding the UK’s industrial base.
Science and Technology
Science and Technology Framework - GOV.UK
By utilising a holistic set of 10 critical levers including investment, financing and procurement opportunities, the framework sets out the policy approach to delivering growth through science and technology focusing on critical technologies including:
- advanced connectivity technologies
- artificial intelligence
- engineering biology
- quantum technologies and
- semiconductors
AI and Data
PM's AI Opportunities Action Plan (Jan 2025)
This plan shows how the UK can shape the application of AI within a modern social market economy.
Quantum, Semiconductors and Advanced Compute
A 10-year vision and actions for the UK to be a leading quantum-enabled economy, recognising the importance of quantum technologies for the UK’s prosperity and security.
National Semiconductor Strategy
A long term strategy to advance Britain's semiconductor sector, focussed on building on existing strength in Intellectual Property and design, compound semiconductors and research and development.
Space and Comms
Sets out the government’s vision for Defence as a global actor in the space domain and articulates how MOD will deliver the Protect and Defend goal through space-related capabilities, operations and partnerships, delivering against the ambition to become a meaningful actor in space.
This first ever National Space Strategy brings together the UK’s strengths in science and technology, defence, regulation and diplomacy to pursue a bold national vision.
National Space Strategy in Action
This policy paper sets out how the government is delivering on the ambitions set out in the National Space Strategy and summarises achievements so far.
UK Wireless Infrastructure Strategy
This strategy sets out the plan for how government, industry, and others can drive seismic changes in what wireless connectivity can deliver and how we can use it, as well as the economic and social benefits.
Emerging Technology
Sets out a renewed vision, mission, outcomes and plans to protect the UK and our interests from significant biological risks, no matter how these occur and no matter who or what they affect.
This is the UK’s first-ever critical minerals strategy that aims to improve the security of supply of critical minerals.
National Vision for Engineering Biology
This vision sets out how government, under DSIT’s leadership, will continue to build-up engineering biology and sets the direction in which government investment, policy and regulatory reform will deliver through the strands of the Science and Technology Framework.
Related pages
Guidance: Resources for Start-ups & Investors
Explore key guidance and tools to help start-ups and investors engage effectively with UK National Security and Defence markets.
Our priorities
We build long-term partnerships with strategically aligned businesses and venture firms where there is clear demand from the UK’s NS&D community. Our goal is to meet today’s capability needs while futureproofing for tomorrow’s challenges.