The European Commission has adopted the fifth annual work programme of the European Defence Fund (EDF), allocating over €1 billion for joint research and development projects in in the field of defence.
This is additional funding to support the development of critical defence technologies and capabilities, with around €100 million allocated to each of the areas of land combat, space, air and naval operations, as well as and energy sustainability and ecological transition.
In addition, more than €40 million of EU funding is allocated to research and development activities in strategic areas such as naval and underwater operations, cyber operations, simulation and training, etc. n.
9 calls for proposals on 31 topics are being announced, which will pave the way for a wide range of basic technologies related to autonomous triage and evacuation of wounded personnel, multifunctional information dissemination system, dialogue between humans and artificial intelligence, chips for defense applications, etc.
The European Defense Fund, with a budget of about 7 €3 billion for the period 2021-2027, is the Commission's instrument to support defence research and development. Without replacing the efforts of Member States, it encourages cooperation between companies of all sizes and scientific actors. research throughout the EU and Norway (as an associated country).