Our Mission

Catalyze Innovation Across the Department

The mission of the Defense Innovation Board is to provide the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and other senior leaders across the Department with independent advice and recommendations on innovative means to address future challenges through the prism of three focus areas: people and culture, technology and capabilities, and practices and operations.

Our Work

The Defense Innovation Board provides specific recommendations, but does not implement change itself. It identifies and works with “sponsors” inside DoD to take action, creating a sustainable foundation for successful ideas to take hold.

The objective is to bring in new perspectives through recommendations relevant to the private sector and academia, encourages the imagination and critical thinking needed to consider new solutions. This process is rapid, creative, collaborative, and ultimately saves time and money while delivering new concepts at the speed of relevance.

Our Story

The Defense Innovation Board (DIB), established in 2016 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, provides independent recommendations to the Secretary of Defense and other senior DoD leaders on emerging technologies and innovative approaches that DoD should adopt to ensure U.S. technological and military dominance. Recommendations are designed to be concise, actionable, and high-impact. To date, the Board’s recommendations have been used to inform DoD leadership strategy and action, as well as congressional legislation.

In the face of rapidly evolving threats and operating environments, the DoD must continuously inject innovative solutions into its strategy and operations to maintain critical advantage on and off the battlefield. Peer and near-peer competitors are challenging U.S. primacy across a number of domains and technologies, and DoD must navigate shifting economic and industry environments to meet these challenges and achieve mission success. In this context, the DIB provides outside independent expertise  to the Department to support the warfighter and encourage innovative best practices throughout the armed forces.

The Board is comprised of leaders from across the national security innovation base to provide diverse insight on DoD’s biggest challenges. The DIB adds value through recommendations on innovation to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense in several focus areas including AI, software, data, digital transformation, and workforce development. The DIB parent board produces recommendations on these topics through the use of its subcommittees.

Charter Documents

 

 

Membership Balance Plan Documents

 

 

Defense Innovation Board Meetings

 

The Board will meet at the call of the Board’s Designated Federal Officer, in consultation with the Board’s Chair and the DoD Chief Management Officer (CMO). The estimated number of meetings of the Board is four per year.  Meetings typically are not closed to the public unless the DoD determines that items on the planned agenda meet the closed meeting provisions of 5 U.S.C. § 552b(c). Pursuant to DoD policy, closed meetings can only be authorized by the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, or DoD Sponsor (DoD CMO) and only after consultation with the Office of the DoD General Counsel.
 

 

FACA Database

The Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) database is used by Federal agencies to continuously manage an average of 1,000 advisory committees government-wide. This database is also used by the Congress to perform oversight of related Executive Branch programs and by the public, the media, and others, to stay abreast of important developments resulting from advisory committee activities.

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