The European Commission has announced that it will support 54 joint European defence research and development projects under the European Defence Fund (EDF), totalling €1,031 million of EU funding. These projects will focus on various defence capabilities, including cyber defence, ground, air, and naval combat, and protecting space-based assets and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) defence.
“Today we are announcing the financing through the European Defence Fund of 54 defence collaborative projects with over €1 billion euros. With the EDF, we encourage industries across Member States to boost their cooperation and innovation in critical areas and develop defence capabilities needed, including cyber defence, ground, air, naval combat and space – and to anticipate, together. It contributes to deliver on our defence security needs in the face of the new security environment and prepare for Europe’s technological leadership,” Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market, said.
The selected projects aim to contribute to the EU’s capability priorities, such as better situational awareness for space access and technologies for a future main battle tank. For example, the MARTE and FMBTech projects will involve over 70 industrial players and research organisations working on the design and systems for the central battle tank platform across Europe.
Additionally, the projects will support strategic air transportation of outsized cargo, which is crucial for rapid support to missions worldwide. In unmanned aerial systems, the E-CUAS project will bring together 24 beneficiaries from 12 Member States and Norway to advance defence technologies countering drones.
Furthermore, regarding land capabilities, Project SRB2 will improve on a novel suspension system for heavy-armoured vehicles. The EDC2 project will result in a prototype of the European patrol corvette based on an initial design developed under EDF calls of 2021. The TALOS-TWO research project, with 19 participants from 8 countries, will focus on laser-based directed energy weapons.
Additionally, under the EU Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS) of the EDF programme, SMEs, start-ups, and new entrants to the defence sector will tap into various opportunities provided in the 2023 EDF funding round.
Notably, four projects will, for the first time, support the transfer of civil innovation to defence. Moreover, the MaJoR project will combine technology development with short-term technical and financial support for up to 60 start-ups and SMEs during the implementation phase, providing them with simpler and easier access to the programme.
The success of the third edition of EDF calls demonstrates the strong and constantly growing interest of the EU defence industry and research organisations of all sizes and geographies in cooperating across borders and jointly contributing to the EU’s strategic capability development.
A strong interest from the EU industry
The programme attracted the interest of the EU industry: 236 proposals were received from diverse consortia, encompassing large enterprises, SMEs, midcaps, and Research and Technology organisations, covering all calls and topics published. There is comprehensive geographical coverage, with 581 legal entities from 26 EU Member States and Norway participating in the selected proposals. There is also broad cooperation within projects; on average, selected proposals involve 17 entities from 8 countries.
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups are playing a significant role in the funded projects, representing over 42% of all entities in selected proposals and receiving more than 18% of the total requested EU funding. This underscores the EU Defence Fund’s commitment to fostering innovation and supporting new entrants in the defence sector, ensuring a dynamic and competitive European defence industry.
There is a good balance between research and capability development actions, with €265 million funding 30 research projects and €766 million funding 24 capability development projects.
Support for disruptive technologies for defence is evident, with 4% of the budget dedicated to funding game-changing ideas that will bring innovation to radically change the concepts and conduct of defence projects.
There is balanced support for strategic defence capabilities, new, promising technology solutions, and consistency with other EU defence initiatives through the EU Strategic Compass, EU capability priorities, and Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), with 14 of the selected development proposals linked to PESCO.
“The EU defence industry’s enthusiastic participation, with 76% more proposals submitted compared to last year, once again showcases the importance of the European Defence Fund. Particularly high interest has been registered by SMEs which confirms that the EDF continues to be highly attractive to smaller companies and newcomers to the defence sector. With this round of EDF we see that the new EU Defence Innovation Scheme is facilitating the adaptation of civilian technologies into the defence realm and making the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base more competitive as a result,” Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, said.
The Commission will now enter into the crucial phase of grant agreement preparation with the consortia behind the selected proposals. This process, which involves finalising the details of the funding and the project’s scope, will be followed by the adoption of the Commission’s award decision. Once these steps are successfully concluded, the grant agreements will be signed before the end of the year, paving the way for the projects to kick off their cooperation.
Over the coming years, these cooperative projects will be instrumental in shaping the future landscape of European defence technology, fostering collaboration across borders, and boosting the innovation capacity of the European defence technological and industrial base.
