The next wave of technology is already here. Australia can shape it, or be shaped by it.
On Tuesday 9 February 2027, the National Security Tech Symposium will bring together 100 senior leaders from government, industry, and academia at Australian Parliament House, Canberra.
Convened by the Tech Council of Australia’s National Security Tech Alliance (NSTA), with Thales as founding partner, the Symposium will explore the long-term implications and opportunities of emerging technologies for Australia’s economic resilience, social stability, and national security.
The program centres on six author presentations and three live technology demonstrations, selected through an open call for expressions of interest. Final papers and demonstrated technologies will be published in an edited collection, The Jindalee Papers.
The first event of its kind, the Symposium comes at a pivotal moment for Australian policymaking. It aims to build consensus among experts and policymakers on a shared national response to emerging technologies, informing practical policy recommendations to government ahead of the 2027–28 Budget and the next federal election.
Symposium Themes
- Achieving sovereign decision advantage
- Cognitive warfare and information trust
- Workforce displacement and augmentation
- Guardrails for AI-enabled defence and critical infrastructure
- Engaging securely and ethically with wetware computing
- Guardrails for engineered organisms, human augmentation and performance enhancement
- Agricultural resilience and food security
- Supporting the PQC transition
- Sovereign secure communications
- Advanced sensing and low-signature systems
- Future electromagnetic dominance
- National cyber resilience against AI and other emerging threats
- Government-industry threat sharing
- Critical infrastructure survivability
- Supply chain security
- Civil preparedness for data and telecommunications in conflict
- Digital infrastructure and trusted connectivity
- The history and future of Australia’s defence industry
- Adopting emerging and dual-use technologies
- Scaling Australian defence tech companies
- AUKUS Pillar II and collaboration with allies
- Rules for defence industry under the Security of Critical Infrastructure (SOCI) regime
- The National Support Division’s needs for data, energy and telecommunications
- Historical lessons from the industrial revolution and technological change
- Achieving effective technology transitions and preserving strategic surprise
- State versus market responses to disruptive technologies
- Economic concentration and sovereign capability
Two ways to take part
Present a paper
Open to individuals and teams from industry, academia, Government and the wider community. Each paper should answer one question: how can Australia actively engage with a specific emerging technology to achieve strategic advantage
Papers should present policy options and considerations on one or more of the Symposium's six themes. Final papers will be published in an edited collection, The Jindalee Papers. Authors not selected to present at the Symposium will still be eligible to have their completed paper published.
Demonstrate a technology
Open to companies and research organisations operating in Australia. Demonstrations should show senior policymakers what a technology can do, what risks it creates, and what Australia can build and sustain in response.
Demonstrators present to around 100 senior leaders from government, industry and academia, and attend the full Symposium. Selected demonstrators will have their technologies showcased in The Jindalee Papers.
Key Dates
- EOIs open: Thursday 5 November 2026
- EOIs close: 11:59pm AEDT, Friday 27 November 2026
- Applicants notified: by Friday 11 December 2026
- Symposium: Tuesday 9 February 2027*, Australian Parliament House, Canberra
Audience registration is not yet open. Details on attending the Symposium will be published on this site.
Selection to demonstrate does not mean that TCA, the NSTA, Thales or any partner endorses any organisation, product or service.
*Date dependent on 2027 Federal Sitting dates.