EUROPEAN DEFENCE FUND – Research actions in the form of a technological challenge implemented via lump sum grants – 2026

Objectives

• To follow up and complement previous activities in the field of hidden threat detection
• To explore solutions that combine intelligent robots, drones and sensing technologies for advanced detection and classification of threats
• To organise a technological challenge and set up a test environment

Among financed actions

• Activities that aim to create, underpin and improve knowledge which can achieve significant effects in the area of defence
• 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

• Initial duration of the action: 48 months

Projects of longer duration may be accepted in duly justified cases. Extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment.

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

Useful

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

• Total budget of the call: 30 million euros
• Budget per topic:
  • EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAP: 23 million euros
  • EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAO: 7 million euros
• Amount of the grant:
  • EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAP: must not exceed 4.6 million euros
  • EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAO: must not exceed the budget available for the topic (7 million euros)
• Funding rate: 100% of the total eligible costs

The grant awarded may be lower than the amount requested.

This grant is a lump sum grant.