On Thursday 30 January, the European Commission adopted the fifth annual work programme under the European Defence Fund (EDF), which allocates more than €1 billion to collaborative research and development projects in the field of defence.
The work programme launches 9 competitive calls for proposals (7 thematic, 2 non-thematic) and 2 specific grant agreements in support of the ‘Alliance for Medical Defence Countermeasures’, covering a total of 31 topics. These will include projects relating to digital technology (€54 million), space (€115m), air combat (€103m), land combat (€192m), naval combat (€54m) and energy resilience and environmental transition (€93m).
4% of the budget is devoted to a call for proposals on disruptive technologies and around 6% to two non-thematic calls for proposals on innovative and future defence solutions, specifically inviting SMEs to apply for research and development projects, the Commission stated in its press release.
The programme will also fund the second edition of the EUDIS defence hackathon, which will take place from 9 to 11 May 2025 at eight locations across the EU and will focus on “creating innovative hardware and software solutions tailored to the urgent needs of the Ukrainian theatre of operations and similar operational contexts”.
The calls for proposals should be open for submission in mid-February 2025, with a closing date of 16 October 2025.
See programme details: https://aeur.eu/f/faj (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)