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Good practice Imported

NATO StratCom COE Opens an AI Lab in Riga to Harden Allies Against Disinformation

Latvia · Riga · See the Latvia profile · See the Riga profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 74% 47/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Latvia-hosted NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence is standing up a dedicated AI Lab, funded to €5.54m in 2026 and €5.66m annually from 2027, to build election-security and disinformation-detection capability for NATO members and partners.

€5.54 million annual budget (+€1.08 million increase)
AI Lab funding, 2026 (2026)
€5.66 million annual budget (+€897,640 further increase)
AI Lab funding, from 2027 (from 2027)

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (StratCom COE)
Period
2025–present (AI Lab)
Region (NUTS)
LV00
Keywords
defence, strategic communications, disinformation resilience, election security

Context

The NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, based in Riga and operating since 2014, is launching a dedicated AI Lab tasked with improving election security and resilience against disinformation and adversarial manipulation, and with building predictive, decision-support tools for policymakers facing information threats.

Objectives

The Lab aims to build capability that can be shared across NATO member states and partner countries, reflecting the Centre's status as an accredited NATO Centre of Excellence rather than a NATO command.

Activities

The Lab is funded through reallocation of national Ministry of Defence budgets: funding rises by €1.08 million in 2026 to reach €5.54 million, and by a further €897,640 from 2027 onward, bringing the annual total to €5.66 million; the Centre began recruiting for multiple AI Lab roles as the programme stood up.

Conclusions

Because the Lab has only just been funded and staffed, there is not yet public evidence of its detection tools being independently evaluated or deployed operationally.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — Funding rises to €5.54 million in 2026 and €5.66 million annually from 2027, funded through reallocation of national Ministry of Defence budgets; banded high given the multi-million-euro sustained annual budget.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — The host Centre has operated since 2014; the AI Lab itself is newly funded and staffed as of 2025-2026 with a multi-year rising budget commitment, banded long given the sustained funding horizon.
Staffing & skills
Multiple AI Lab roles being recruited within the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence

Conditions for success

  • Rising, committed multi-year budget (€5.54m in 2026, €5.66m from 2027)
  • Accredited NATO Centre of Excellence mandate to share tools across member states and partner countries

Common failure modes

  • No public evidence yet of the Lab's detection tools being independently evaluated or deployed operationally
  • Internal methods are defence-sensitive and not disclosed, limiting external transparency
  • Disinformation-detection tooling for policymakers raises free-expression and oversight questions that public sources do not yet address

Where it fits

Governance type
NATO-accredited multinational Centre of Excellence, funded via national Ministry of Defence budget reallocation
Scale
multi-country (NATO member states and partners)
Income level
high-income (NATO alliance)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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