The thematic areas – in which each proposal can be included – are divided, not on the basis of the research area, but on the basis of their scope of application in business. Thus, the thematic areas are the following:
- Tactical level: It concerns planning and carrying out tactical military actions in order to achieve military objectives, by tactical Formations, Groups and Units. That is, the battle and the engagements between the opposing forces that make up a large-scale operation. This level includes innovation proposals concerning units or systems, such as shell firing optimisation system, methods of monitoring damage to a ship, flight countermeasures, methods of monitoring/safety of a unit, methods of monitoring the health of personnel during battle, etc.
- Operational level: It concerns the level of war at which large-scale operations are planned (combining more than one military action).This level includes innovation proposals concerning the planning, organisation, consolidation and execution of operations, e.g. submarine detection system, communications encryption software, cyber warfare software, health loss management, marine surveillance system, game theory software, etc.
- Strategic Level: At this level, the military strategy is formed, which is a component of the grand strategy. In other words, the way of deployment and engagement of the Armed Forces is planned in order to achieve the National Objectives. This level includes innovation proposals related to the preparation and planning of operations, e.g. human resource management system, migration flow monitoring system, decision making software, etc.
In the above thematic areas, the proposals can concern both the physical domain, which consists of the environment, the means, the physical objects, the physical actions and the results in the area of operations (land, sea, air and space), and the cybernetic domain, which includes the Command and Control systems in the area of operations, including their ability to collect, process and distribute information to make timely decisions, as well as to command and control operations. Operations carried out within cyberspace focus on prohibiting, interrupting or delaying the collection and exchange of information by the opposing force, achieving deception and infringing on their means of command and control.
Each innovation proposal per thematic unit can fall within the following categories:
- Telecommunications
- Physical and digital security
- Software Development
- Hardware Development
- Defence Systems
The above categories and thematic areas may concern the army, navy, airforce and space, either individually or in combination.