The European Defence Fund (EDF) is the European Commission’s funding programme for defence research and development, aimed at fostering a European innovative and competitive defence industrial base.
The €8 billion programme, which will be available from 2021-2027, is open to companies of all size and research performing organisations from the 27 EU member states and from Norway.
Each year, the EDF work programme publishes thematic and non-thematic calls for projects to which European industry and researchers can submit their project proposals.
For the second edition, launched in 2022, 41 collaborative projects have been selected for funding, receiving total support from the European Union of almost €832 million.
Five Luxembourg companies and research organisations, supported by Luxinnovation and the Directorate of Defence, are involved in five selected R&D projects:
- Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) in the STORE research project (Shared daTabase for Optronics image Recognition and Evaluation – Optimisation of an AI-based integrated image recognition systems and development of a shared European database on annotated defence images; overall budget: €23.3 million).
- Luxtrust in the SESIOP research project (Single European Sky and InterOPerability – Improving the interoperability of military air command and control systems towards Single European Sky rules; overall budget: €19.1 million).
- Hitec Luxembourg in the REACTS research project (Responsive European Architecture for Space – providing an interoperable, resilient and scalable Network of Responsive Space Systems (RSS); overall budget: €19.3 million).
- Gradel in the FASETT research project (Future Air System for European Tactical Transportation – Analysis of the technical and market possibilities for the potential development of a new cost competitive and robust aircraft platform; overall budget: €30.1 million).
- Luxgovsat in the EC2 development project (European Command and Control System – creation of a single access point for command and control, contributing to operational capabilities. overall budget: €47.2 million, supported and co-financed by the Directorate of Defence.
“Luxembourg companies and research organisations have convinced European prime contractors such as Airbus, Thales, Leonardo and Indra of their quality and have thus succeeded in integrating consortia that have obtained the greatest possible support from the Member States of the European Union,” says Alexander Link, Defence Technology & Innovation Coordinator at Luxinnovation. “Luxembourg industry and research have demonstrated that they have the know-how, skills and capabilities to integrate the EU defence value chain and contribute to the development of its future capabilities and technologies.”
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