EUROPEAN DEFENCE FUND – Research actions implemented via actual cost grants – 2026

Objectives

• To improve efficiency, safety, and process checks, and reduce the manual workload via robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) in military decontamination processes (MDPs)
• To continue research to demonstrate an innovative radar system capable of detecting and tracking HGVs and UAVs
• To have a quantum-secured tactical network for military purposes
• To explore the development of sensor systems, analyse the progress of relevant technologies and identify possible challenges
• To develop and validate advanced models for predicting flow related underwater noise, including the generation of high quality verification data

Among financed actions

• Activities that aim to create, underpin and improve knowledge which can achieve significant effects in the area of defence
• Activities that aim to increase interoperability and resilience to strengthen the security of supply or to enable the effective exploitation of results for defence products and technologies
• Studies
• Design of a defence product

Eligibility

• Be legal entities (public or private bodies)
• Be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
  • Non-EU countries :
    • Listed EEA countries and countries associated to the EDF Programme (‘EDF associated countries’; list of participating countries)
• Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register before submitting the proposal.
• A consortium composed of minimum 3 independent applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries must be constituted.

Additional information

• Contact: DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS@ec.europa.eu

Useful

• Guidelines: Click here
• Other call documents: Click here
• DG website: Click here
• More information: Click here

• Total budget of the call: 110 million euros
• Budget per topic:
  • EDF-2026-RAMCBRN-DST: 15 million euros
  • EDF-2026-RA-SENSMSDT: 20 million euros
  • EDF-2026-RA-CYBERQSTN: 14 million euros
  • EDF-2026-RA-AIRA4R: 20 million euros
  • EDF-2026-RAPROTMOB-FMLA: 15 million euros
  • EDF-2026-RA-UWWFUWN: 10 million euros
  • EDF-2026-RASIMTRAIN-MSAI: 16 million euros
• Amount of the grant:
  • EDF-2026-RA-SIMTRAIN-MSAI: must not exceed 8 million euros
  • For all other topics: must not exceed the budget available for the topic

The grant awarded may be lower than the amount requested.

• Funding rate: 100% of the total eligible costs