€910 million to boost European defence

The Commission is investing €910 million under the 2024 edition of the European Defence Fund (EDF) to create a strong and innovative defence industry in Europe. These investments aim to close key capability gaps—like force mobility and drone defence—through innovation and collaboration across European science and industry. Moreover, and for the first time, Ukrainian defence industries can be associated to EDF projects.

The strengthened cooperation between the Ukrainian and European defence industries, builds on outreach efforts by the EU Defence Innovation Office in Kyiv to foster closer ties and to further integrate Ukraine into the European defence industrial base, reinforcing shared security and innovation objectives.

These EDF investments will boost Europe’s defence industry, in line with the Commission’s ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030 to strengthen pan-European defence capabilities, and the Joint White Paper on European Defence Readiness 2030, framing a new approach to defence and identifying investment needs.

EDF 2024 call results

With a budget of €7.3 billion for 2021-2027, the EDF is the EU’s primary instrument to support defence R&D cooperation. It fosters collaboration among companies of all sizes and research institutions across the EU and Norway. Additionally, the EDF is driving the transformation and expansion of the EU defence ecosystem with the EU Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS) at its core.

A dedicated €45 million from this year’s investment supports disruptive technologies, designed to significantly alter or replace existing defence products, concepts and capabilities, often by introducing simplicity, convenience, accessibility, or cost-effectiveness. Nine of the selected projects aim at delivering disruptive technologies, such as project METASTEALTH, which is developing next-generation stealth materials.

Newly selected projects also include Ukraine’s Small UAS, which focuses on developing advanced, AI-driven aerial systems. Other examples include the ENGRTII project, which unites more than 45 industrial players and research organisations to develop the next generation European rotorcraft by 2030. Another project, EUROSWEEP, will create a common autonomous European minesweeping system.

The EDF also contributed for the first time to the objectives of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), the Commission’s initiative to boost the development and manufacturing of critical technologies in the EU, with a total of 15 related call topics. All proposals that met the required quality standards under these calls have been awarded a STEP Seal, which helps attract further public and private funding. The full list of those projects will be published on the STEP Portal in the coming weeks.

Next Steps

Following the selection of the successful proposals, the Commission will now enter into the grant agreement preparation with the consortia, with the goal of signing agreements before the end of the year. The resulting projects will be instrumental in shaping the future of European defence, fostering a collaborative and innovative defence ecosystem, and enhancing the EU’s strategic capabilities over the next few years.

Background

The EDF provides support for the entire research and development cycle, focusing on projects that yield cutting-edge, interoperable defence technologies and equipment. The EDF also promotes innovation and encourages cross-border participation by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Project selection is based on calls for proposals that reflect the EU’s capability priorities, as agreed upon by Member States within the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) framework and the Capability Development Plan (CDP).

The EDF is implemented through annual work programmes, structured around 17 thematic and horizontal categories of action during the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework period. These categories focus on:

• Addressing emerging challenges, such as defence medical support, CBRN threats, biotech, and human factors, to create a holistic approach to the modern-day battlefield.
• Developing boosters and enablers for defence, including digital transformation, energy resilience, and environmental transition, to drive key technological advancements across capability domains.
• Enhancing excellence in warfare, with a focus on air combat, air and missile defence, ground combat, force protection, and mobility, as well as simulation and training, to support ambitious defence systems.

The fourth edition of the EDF calls has seen unprecedented interest from the EU defence industry and research organisations. It has attracted a record-number of 297 proposals, bringing together 625 legal entities from 26 EU Member States or Norway. This highlights the growing appetite for pan-European cooperation and joint strategic defence capability development. SMEs play a vital role in selected proposals, accounting for over 38% of all participating entities and receiving more than 27% of the total EU funding requested. In the selected projects, over €369 million are assigned to 39 research projects and €539 million to 23 capability development projects.

More information: European Commission