On Monday 26 June, the European Commission announced the results of the 2022 calls for proposals under the ‘European Defence Fund’ (EDF), worth €832 million in EU funding for 41 joint research and development projects in the defence sector.
Of these funds, €317 million will finance 25 research projects and €514 million will finance 14 capacity development projects.
The projects that have been selected will help to further develop the EU's top-of-the-range defence capabilities in critical areas such as naval, ground, air combat, space-based and cyber combat, according to the European Commission in its press release.
According to them, on average, the selected proposals involve 22 entities from 9 EU Member States and Norway. A total of 550 legal entities from 26 EU Member States and Norway are taking part in the selected proposals.
In addition, SMEs represent more than 39% of all entities participating in the selected proposals and will receive 20% of the total funding requested by the EU.
For the first time, the EDF will be launching a €25 million technology challenge as part of the EU's defence innovation programme (EUDIS). Teams will compete to develop the best solution for detecting hidden threats using unmanned systems and enabling military and civilian personnel to operate safely within conflict environments, according to the European Commission.
See details of selected projects: https://aeur.eu/f/7q8 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)