Tuesday October 8, 2024, in Balard, the Audacity Awards ceremony took place. Eight innovation projects were rewarded in their respective categories. For the national gendarmerie, it was the NéoDK device, worn by Colonel Nicolas Thiburce, project manager at the Directorate of Operations and Employment (DOE), which was distinguished.
« We need audacity, more audacity, always audacity », proclaimed Danton on September 2, 1792 before the National Assembly. It is this audacity, but also creativity, initiative, ingenuity that was in the spotlight this Tuesday, October 8, in Balard. Since 1992, the Audacity Prize has valued and rewarded military and civilian agents of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the national gendarmerie, who imagine and develop new equipment and services, thus improving the operational capabilities of our forces or the functioning in the daily life of institutions.
This prize is awarded by a jury comprising seven members of the Maréchal Leclerc de Hauteclocque Foundation and seven members representing the three armies, the Armed Forces General Staff, the General Directorate of Armaments (DGA), the General Secretariat for administration (SGA) and the national gendarmerie.
Tuesday October 8, 2024, the 24 innovation projects competing, in eight categories, which concern different areas of application, such as engagement, protection, simulation, support, maintenance and information systems, were presented on the Place d’Armes of the Valin plot, in Balard, by personnel from the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the national gendarmerie. The exhibition was organized by the Defense Innovation Agency (DIA).
This year, the gendarmerie presented three projects:
- EXOM: hardened exoskeleton meeting the constraints and requirements of GIGN intervention missions;
- NéoDK: individually or in mobility, the capture of biometric data within the reach of the forces;
- ORYX: the employment of the spouse in the service of the loyalty of the gendarme.
It was the NéoDK device which was rewarded. The project leader, Colonel Nicolas Thiburce, project manager at the Directorate of Operations and Employment (DOE) received the prize, as well as a testimonial of satisfaction given by Jean-Louis Thiérot, Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans, in the presence in particular of Major General Marc Boget, responsible for the mission of the Director General of the National Gendarmerie, of Lieutenant General (2s) Eric Hautecloque-Raysz, Secretary General of the Maréchal Leclerc Foundation de Hauteclocque, and the Inspector General of Armaments Patrick Aufort, Director of the Defense Innovation Agency (AID).
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