Brave1: Over 1,000 Grants to Grow Ukraine’s Defense Tech
Brave1 is a defense-tech support body that six Ukrainian government agencies launched in April 2023, in the midst of Russia's full-scale invasion. A state fund provides grants of up to 8 million hryvnias per stage that do not need to be repaid, and according to the Ministry of Defense, by September 2026 these had reached over 1,000 grants totaling 6.2 billion hryvnias. This article sums up how the program is run, the legal basis behind it, and where the money goes.
On September 14, 2026, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense announced that Brave1, the defense-tech support body, had provided 6.2 billion hryvnias for defense-tech development since 2023, and that grants to Ukrainian developers had passed 1,000. According to the Ministry, Brave1’s grants do not need to be repaid, and recipient companies are not required to give the state a stake or intellectual property rights.
This mechanism, launched by the state in the midst of Russia’s full-scale invasion and starting out as grants to startups, is examined here based on published materials from the government and the operating body: who runs it, under what legal basis, and where the money goes. This article does not cover the performance or battlefield results of individual weapons. The content reflects the situation as of September 2026.
April 2023: a memorandum among six agencies
Brave1 was announced on April 26, 2023. According to an article that day from the Ministry of Defense’s press outlet, Army Inform (Армія Inform), six agencies — the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Security and Defense Council, the Ministry of Strategic Industries, and the Ministry of Economy — set up Brave1 as a “single coordination platform” for the field of defense tech and signed a memorandum of cooperation. At the announcement, the Minister of Digital Transformation introduced a portal where developers could submit their projects and receive military expert evaluation and grants.
Five activities were named at the announcement:
- Invest: providing grants to developers in fields the security and defense forces have prioritized
- Invent: helping the security and defense forces find effective technology among Ukrainian developers
- Platform: creating a place that connects everyone involved in the field
- Showcase: demonstrating developed technology to the defense forces and getting feedback from those who used it
- Boost: comprehensively supporting prioritized projects
Run by the state’s Innovation Development Fund
Brave1’s site describes Brave1 as “a state initiative carried out by the Innovation Development Fund” (Фонд розвитку інновацій). The Fund’s money comes from the state budget, as a budget program of the Ministry of Digital Transformation (Cabinet Resolution No. 1110 of December 12, 2018). Under an amendment of March 10, 2023 (Cabinet Resolution No. 219), when the Fund competitively provides funding to projects such as startups, those projects must be aimed at developing dual-use and other technology, and at developing and introducing innovation.
Brave1’s name appears in a Cabinet resolution for the first time in Resolution No. 262 of March 8, 2024, “On Certain Issues of Ensuring the Development of Innovation and Technology for Defense Needs.” Under this resolution, the Fund established the “Brave 1” grant program, which can provide competitively selected development projects with a flat-rate grant of up to 8,999,999 hryvnias each.
Larger support of 9 million hryvnias or more is provided through the “Brave 1” competition under the same resolution’s procedures, on written request from the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, military command, the National Guard, the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense, and other bodies. The cap per recipient company is 900 million hryvnias. This larger support is available only to legal entities registered in Ukraine, excluding companies in which the state or a local government holds 25% or more, and non-profit organizations. Also excluded are companies registered in Russian-occupied territory, companies with a subsidiary or branch in Russia or Belarus, companies whose ultimate beneficial owner is a citizen of Russia or Belarus (except those lawfully settled in Ukraine), and companies involving anyone under sanctions.
Resolution No. 262 was amended in 2025 and 2026; the amendment of June 24, 2026 (Cabinet Resolution No. 829) added procedures for support that uses foreign funding and for testing and evaluating foreign technology.
Four amounts, one for each stage of development
Regular grants are run under the “Regulation on Brave1 Grant Program No. 1,” approved by the Fund’s supervisory board on November 20, 2025 and amended repeatedly through August 25, 2026. The amount is set by the stage of development.
| Cap | What the grant is for |
|---|---|
| 500,000 hryvnias | Verifying and researching an idea |
| 2 million hryvnias | Building a laboratory prototype (lab sample) |
| 4 million hryvnias | Building a prototype and testing it at a testing ground, with the Fund present |
| 8 million hryvnias | Finishing the product and having defense and security force units try it |
A single developer (legal entity) can receive up to 30 million hryvnias in grants in total per fiscal year. The grants cannot be used for products that have already completed the military’s adoption procedure (coding) or that have been approved for operational use. Applications go through a compliance review and are decided by the Fund’s supervisory board, which may ask a developer to present before the board if needed.
According to the Ministry of Defense, the aim of the grants is to raise products’ technology readiness level (TRL, where 1 is a concept and 9 is a product ready for mass production) to a level usable on the battlefield. A survey of defense-tech manufacturers by BRDO, a body that supports regulatory reform, reportedly found that Brave1 grants raised TRL by an average of 1.7, and that 79% of respondents said they could not get similar support anywhere else.
The breakdown of the 6.2 billion hryvnias
| Mechanism | Number of grants | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| The regular grant program | 977 | 2.3 billion hryvnias |
| Special grant program (the “missile” and “artificial intelligence” fields) | 20 | 145 million hryvnias |
| EU4UA Defence Tech (EU support, 2026) | 11 | 81 million hryvnias |
| Grant competitions (priority fields set with the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, and others) | 34 | 3.7 billion hryvnias |
Among the regular grants, the fields with the most grants were unmanned aerial systems (215), unmanned ground vehicles (199), and electronic warfare and signals/electronic intelligence (49). The grant competitions, the largest by amount, numbered 34 and, according to the Ministry of Defense, went toward developing cruise and ballistic missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and autonomous technology, and toward expanding explosives production.
“EU4UA Defence Tech,” funded by the EU, is a program with a budget of over 150 million hryvnias expected to provide around 40 grants, of which 11 were awarded in 2026.
Other roles the grants play
The Ministry of Digital Transformation’s Brave1 page states that, as results from its first two years, the number of developers in the cluster has passed 1,500, more than 3,600 solutions have been gathered in fields such as drones, robotics, electronic warfare, communications, and artificial intelligence, and more than $85 million in private investment has been drawn in. It also cites the launch of Brave1 Market, a defense-tech “marketplace.” The Ministry of Defense says that, besides funding, Brave1 also helps with testing, gathering feedback from the military, building partnerships, and getting technology adopted by the armed forces.
The overall weight of different industries in wartime Ukraine is covered in Industry in Wartime Ukraine — the Weight of Agriculture, Manufacturing, Services, and Energy, and state loans for small and medium-sized businesses in Hire Two More People and the Rate Drops to 5%: Ukraine’s “5-7-9” SME Loan Program.
Sources and article record
Sources and references
- Brave1 has awarded more than 1,000 grants to Ukrainian defense developersSeptember 14, 2026; 6.2 billion hryvnias, over 1,000 grants, the number and amount by program, the TRL survey, not requiring equity or intellectual property
Published by Міністерство оборони України · Checked: 2026-09-24 - В Україні запустили кластер з розвитку оборонних технологій BRAVE1April 26, 2023; the six agencies, the memorandum, the five activities
Published by АрміяInform (Міністерство оборони України) · Checked: 2026-09-24 - Ukraine launches BRAVE1 defence tech cluster to stimulate development of military innovations and defence technologiesApril 26, 2023; the six agencies
Published by Кабінет Міністрів України · Checked: 2026-09-24 - Про Brave1a state initiative carried out by the Innovation Development Fund
Published by Brave1 · Checked: 2026-09-24 - Положення про Грантову програму Brave1 № 1approved November 20, 2025, amended through August 25, 2026; Articles 1.1, 3.2–3.4, 9
Published by Фонд розвитку інновацій · Checked: 2026-09-24 - Постанова КМУ № 262 «Деякі питання забезпечення розвитку інновацій та технологій для потреб оборони»March 8, 2024; Article 2, procedure Articles 1–6; the version through the June 24, 2026 amendment
Published by Кабінет Міністрів України (zakon.rada.gov.ua) · Checked: 2026-09-24 - Постанова КМУ № 1110December 12, 2018; how the Innovation Development Fund's budget is used
Published by Кабінет Міністрів України (zakon.rada.gov.ua) · Checked: 2026-09-24 - Постанова КМУ № 219March 10, 2023; amendment to Resolution No. 1110; dual-use technology
Published by Кабінет Міністрів України (zakon.rada.gov.ua) · Checked: 2026-09-24 - Brave1 — Проєктиthe number of developers, number of solutions, and private investment cited as results from the first two years; Brave1 Market
Published by Міністерство цифрової трансформації України · Checked: 2026-09-24
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