On Monday 6 April, the European Commission launched calls for proposals with the aim of funding up to €160 million of joint defence industrial projects in 2020.
These calls cover 12 categories reflecting the critical capability needs identified in close cooperation with Member States, according to the Commission.
The calls for projects, which will be funded by the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP), will be open from 15 April to 1 December 2020.
They include capabilities for medical detection and countermeasures in the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) fields, the development of capabilities for maritime and air surveillance, ground and air combat and cyber defence, and secure communication and information-sharing technologies.
A category with a budget of €10 million is entirely reserved for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
In addition, the Commission announced the selection of seven defence research projects worth more than €23 million from the Preparatory Action for Defence Research (PADR).
It is a European Active electronically scanned Array with Combined Radar, Communications, and Electronic Warfare functions for military applications (CROWN), an Artificial Intelligence for Detection of Explosive Devices (AIDED) project and a Quantum Secure Communication and Navigation for European Defence (QUANTAQUEST) project.
Projectiles for Increased Long-range effects Using Electro-Magnetic railgun (PILUM), Autonomous Rough-terrain Transport UGV Swarm (ARTUS), an Innovative Positioning system for defence in GNSS-denied areas (OPTIMISE) and a project on Interoperability Standards for Unmanned Armed Forces Systems (INTERACT) were also selected.
See the calls for projects under the PEDID: https://bit.ly/3aROS1q and the projects selected under the PADR: https://bit.ly/2JV7IsR (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)