The European Defence Fund (EDF) provides financial support to defence projects developed jointly at EU level. In June 2021, the European Commission adopted the first EDF annual work programme and published a first series of 23 calls for proposals. Within this framework, 61 collaborative projects have been selected, and the Commission recently announced that it was allocating a budget of 1.2 billion euros to them.

The EDF is the European Commission’s main instrument for supporting defense cooperation in Europe, fostering cooperation between companies of all sizes, from start-ups to large corporations, and research actors throughout the EU.

It supports competitive and collaborative defense projects throughout the research and development cycle, with a focus on projects leading to interoperable and advanced defense technologies and equipment. It also promotes innovation and encourages cross-border participation of SMEs.

Projects are selected following calls for projects defined on the basis of priorities agreed by the Member States in the context of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and in particular in the context of the Capability Development Plan (CDP).

A budget of almost €8 billion over six years

The EDF has a budget of €7.953 billion for this first program, which covers the period 2021-2027. The envelope is distributed as follows:

• 2.651 billion euros will be allocated to fund collaborative defense research dedicated to combating emerging and future threats;
• 5.302 billion will be used to co-finance collaborative capacity building projects.

Between 4% and 8% of the EDF budget will be devoted to development or research in the field of disruptive technologies likely to lead to decisive innovations in a defense context.

Projects submitted

The calls for projects have been very successful:

• 142 proposals were submitted by consortia composed of large leading companies, SMEs, mid-cap companies and research and technology organizations (RTOs), covering all published calls and themes.
• Broad geographical coverage: nearly 700 legal entities from 26 EU Member States and Norway participate in the selected proposals.
• Enhanced defense cooperation: on average, selected proposals involve 18 entities from 8 EU Member States and Norway.
• Strong participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): SMEs represent more than 40% of all entities participating in the selected proposals, which receive almost 20% of the total European funding requested.
• Good balance between research and capability development: 322 million euros to fund 31 research projects and 845 million euros to fund 30 large-scale projects to develop systems and technologies for defense capabilities.
• Support for disruptive defense technologies: more than 5% of the budget is dedicated to funding breakthrough ideas that will drive innovation and radically change the way defense is conceived and conducted.
• Consistency with EU-level priorities: notably Permanent Structured Cooperation (PSC), with half of the selected development proposals declared as part of a PSC project.

The selected projects concern high-end defense capabilities, the next generation of combat aircraft, tanks and ships, as well as critical defense technologies such as AI, military cloud, semiconductors, space, cyberspace or medical countermeasures. In addition, the EDF will spearhead disruptive technologies, including quantum technologies and new materials, and leverage promising SMEs and start-ups.

Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the Commission states:

“The excellent projects selected have shown that defence industrial cooperation in Europe can become a reality, even on a large scale. The almost 700 companies that will be researching and developing the next generation of innovative defense technologies with EU funding will provide the impetus for a resilient and competitive industrial base. The fact that SMEs represent 43% of the entities participating in the selected projects shows that the European Defense Fund program is indeed about the entire EU industrial value chain.”

Thierry Breton, Internal Market Commissioner, assures:

“With an investment of €1.2 billion in 61 collaborative European defense projects, the European Defense Fund is now showing concrete results towards a more integrated European defense industry able to foster innovation and provide state-of-the-art capabilities to our armed forces. Thanks to the European Defense Fund, European defense cooperation is increasingly becoming the norm. We spend better by spending collectively. Member States and the European defense industry will all benefit, regardless of their size.”

Translated from La Commission Européenne finance 61 projets du Fonds Européen de Défense à hauteur de 1,2 milliard d’euros