The European Commission has selected 57 defence projects under the 2025 European Defence Fund call (EDF), a record-breaking round covering AI, drones, cyber, space, and the EU’s four major Readiness Flagships.
EDF 2025
Following a rigorous evaluation of the fifth EDF cycle, the European Commission has announced the selection of 57 projects to receive a combined €1.07 billion in funding. The results, published on 15 April 2026, mark a milestone for European defence collaboration and reflect the growing urgency to deliver concrete technological capabilities ahead of the Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030. Still, the success rate for the EDF was at 13.9% representing a much better opportunity for technology and innovation funding than most Horizon Europe programmes.
European Readiness Flagships
More than 15 of the selected projects are directly tied to the EU’s four major defence flagship initiatives, the strategic programmes driving Europe’s near-term readiness posture:
- European Drone Defence Initiative: focuses on counter-drone systems and affordable drone munitions at scale. Project AETHER will deliver advanced propulsion and thermal management for next-generation drone platforms.
- Eastern Flank Watch: Strengthens situational awareness and readiness on NATO’s eastern border, including long-range fire and counter-battery technologies such as project TRIDENT.
- European Air Shield: Develops next-generation air defence capabilities, including integrated radar and sensor networks, and the SPECTRE European air security ecosystem.
- European Space Shield: Supports the deployment of affordable small-satellite constellations for real-time ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) to strengthen Europe’s space-based awareness.
Budget of the EDF
The €1.07 billion envelope is split between two categories, prioritising capability development while sustaining a robust research pipeline:
SMEs and startups at the centre of the EDF
A defining feature of the 2025 round is the scale of small business participation. SMEs account for over 38% of all participating entities and receive more than 21% of the total funding, a deliberate policy to broaden the European defence industrial base beyond traditional prime contractors.
Several drone munition projects will launch “sub-calls” specifically targeting start-ups and SMEs (including Ukrainian entities) offering grants of up to €60,000 each to integrate innovative technologies into existing projects, lowering the entry barrier for companies with no prior defence experience.
Insights for 2026
The 2025 cycle attracted 410 proposals, a 38% increase over the previous year, reflecting the rising strategic urgency and growing familiarity with EDF processes across the continent. The selected 57 projects involve 634 entities spanning 26 EU member states plus Norway, making this the most geographically inclusive round to date.
Since the EDF Regulation entered into force in May 2021, the Commission has committed nearly €6.5 billion in total, cementing its position as one of the world’s top investors in defence research and development.
Selected projects of the EDF call
Here is the full list of winners:
| Name | Description | Vertical | Funding | Coordinator |
| RESILIENCE-R-2025 | Third research action for medical countermeasures against CBRN threats | Defence medical support, CBRN, biotech and human factors | €13,499,796.36 | COMMISSARIAT A L’ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES (France) |
| RESILIENCE-D-25 | Second development action for medical countermeasures against CBRN threats. | Defence medical support, CBRN, biotech and human factors | €11,498,737.82 | COMMISSARIAT A L’ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES (France) |
| SALUBRIS | Strategic Autonomous Logistic Uncrewed Battlefield Triage Intervention System. | Defence medical support, CBRN, biotech and human factors | €9,998,683.60 | IVECO DEFENCE VEHICLES SPA (Italy) |
| ANEMOS | Airborne New European MIDS Operational Solution. | Information superiority | €38,999,958.70 | LEONARDO – SOCIETA PER AZIONI (Italy) |
| SPIRIT | Small Pitch Improved Resolution for Infrared Technology. | Advanced passive and active sensors | €28,999,999.65 | LYNRED (France) |
| SHIMBAD | Shipborne MultiBand AESA Demonstrator. | Advanced passive and active sensors | €29,449,365.64 | INDRA SISTEMAS SA (Spain) |
| ECC2 | European Cyber Command and Control System. | Cyber | €34,000,000.00 | INDRA SISTEMAS SA (Spain) |
| STRATUS | Swarm Threat Resilience and Adaptive Tactical UxV Security. | Cyber | €19,946,186.41 | TALGEN CYBERSECURITY OU (Estonia) |
| ASIMOV | Autonomous System for Inspection, Maintenance, and Defence Operations. | Space | €48,999,999.97 | LEONARDO – SOCIETA PER AZIONI (Italy) |
| SPIDER2 | Space-based Persistent ISR for Defence and Europe Reinforcement – phase 2. | Space | €65,132,347.52 | AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE SAS (France) |
| DIALOG-AI | Defence Innovative Assessments and Live-tests of Operational Generative AI. | Digital transformation | €6,999,978.06 | AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE SAS (France) |
| AI-SHIELD | Secure, Human-AI, Interactive, Edge, Language, Dialogue. | Digital transformation | €4,943,940.70 | MULTIVERSE COMPUTING SL (Spain) |
| LLM Secret | Sovereign and trusted large language models for European defence. | Digital transformation | €4,999,567.00 | NSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE EN INFORMATIQUE ET AUTOMATIQUE (France) |
| MIDAS | Middleware for Intelligent Defense AI Dialogue Systems. | Digital transformation | €4,998,311.46 | SATWAYS-OLOKLIROMENES LYSEIS ASFALEIAS KAI AMYNAS-IDIOTIKI EPICHEIRISI PAROCHIS YPIRESION ASFALEIAS (IEPYA)-ETAIREIA PERIORISMENIS EFTHYNIS (Greece) |
| RHESIS | Privacy-preserving adaptive Human-AI dialogue system. | Digital transformation | €4,999,962.35 | ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS (Greece) |
| MINERVA | Modular Integration of Naval Energy Systems for Resilient Vessels. | Energy resilience and environmental transition | €19,873,591.11 | NVL B.V. & CO. KG (Germany) |
| SHARP | Sovereign High-performance Architecture for Rotorcraft Propulsion. | Energy resilience and environmental transition | €24,998,578.96 | EURA SAS (France) |
| AETHER | Advanced Engines and Thermal-electric energy for Highly-integrated systems. | Energy resilience and environmental transition | €48,080,124.02 | GE AVIO SRL (Italy) |
| EURECA | European Resilient Chiplet Architecture. | Materials and components | €24,995,297.82 | THALES SIX GTS FRANCE SAS (France) |
| EICACS 2 | European Initiative for Collaborative Air Combat Standardisation 2. | Air combat | €48,999,054.97 | DASSAULT AVIATION (France) |
| EPIIC2 | Enhanced Pilot Interfaces & Interactions for fighter Cockpit Phase 2. | Air combat | €54,000,000.00 | THALES AVS FRANCE SAS (France) |
| D-STORM | Drone-based Scalable Tactical Operations Responsive Munitions. | Ground combat | €9,800,000.00 | MBDA ITALIA SPA (Italy) |
| EURODAMM | European Drone-Based Affordable Mass Munitions. | Ground combat | €9,009,921.57 | FRANKENBURG TECHNOLOGIES OÜ (Estonia) |
| LUMINA | Loitering Unmanned Munitions with Intelligent Networked Autonomy. | Ground combat | €9,530,059.37 | IKNOWHOW SA (Greece) |
| SKYRAPTOR | Mass-affordable, cost-efficient drone-based loitering munition. | Ground combat | €9,799,999.50 | INTRACOM DEFENSE AE (Greece) |
| TALON | Tactical Affordable Loitering Ordnance and Nodes. | Ground combat | €9,796,487.50 | ELLINIKI AEROPORIKI VIOMICHANIA ANONYMI ETAIREIA (Greece) |
| FAMOUS3 | European Future Highly Mobile Augmented Armoured Systems 3. | Ground combat | €78,999,700.27 | PATRIA LAND OY (Finland) |
| LATACC2 | Land Tactical Collaborative Combat Phase 2. | Ground combat | €43,996,617.41 | THALES SIX GTS FRANCE SAS (France) |
| TRIDENT | Next-generation resilient long-range European Counter-Battery system. | Ground combat | €19,998,016.75 | THALES SIX GTS FRANCE SAS (France) |
| ACHILE2 | Augmented Capability for High-end Soldiers. | Force protection and mobility | €34,985,763.90 | SAFRAN ELECTRONICS & DEFENSE (France) |
| E-DOMINION | Digitalization of Maritime Innovation for Naval Integrated Platforms. | Naval protection | €54,000,000.00 | NAVANTIA SA (Spain) |
| SHIELD | Subsea Heterogeneous Integrated Ecosystem Link Development. | underwater warfare | €25,000,000.00 | TKMS ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GMBH (Germany) |
| SWORD | Stand-off Anti-Submarine Warfare Operations by Remote Deployment. | underwater warfare | €19,994,719.97 | TKMS ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GMBH (Germany) |
| DART | Digital Architecture Framework for SoS Readiness. | simulation and training | €27,997,206.03 | TXT E-TECH SRL (Italy) |
| EVOLVE | European Vision for Interoperable Live, Virtual, Constructive Ecosystem. | simulation and training | €14,999,985.60 | CS GROUP – FRANCE (France) |
| DEEP-TECH | Underwater technology enabler for deep-sea operations. | Disruptive technologies | €11,596,530.55 | INESC TEC – INSTITUTO DE ENGENHARIADE SISTEMAS E COMPUTADORES, TECNOLOGIA E CIENCIA (Portugal) |
| ABYSSA | Advanced Breakthrough systems for Subsea Autonomy. | Disruptive technologies | €13,901,713.77 | FINCANTIERI SPA (Italy) |
| CoPaNA | Concatenated Parity codes on Neutral Atoms. | Disruptive technologies | €3,999,671.31 | PASQAL (France) |
| NEXTSWIR | Enabling extended SWIR imaging. | Disruptive technologies | €3,995,985.47 | COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES (France) |
| SOLARES | Soldier Operational Autonomous Resilient Energy System. | Disruptive technologies | €3,999,987.52 | PLEIONE ENERGY GMBH (Germany) |
| SPECTRE | European Unified Aerial Security Ecosystem for threat response. | Disruptive technologies | €3,935,941.64 | AGILE SYSTEMS ENGINEERING S.R.L. (Romania) |
| Spin Defender | Spin-based neural networks for RF processing at the edge. | Disruptive technologies | €3,907,395.63 | THALES (France) |
| FAST TRAIN | Fused Analytics and Smart Textiles for soldier training. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €3,987,119.53 | GUARDIARIS, RACUNALNISKE APLIKACIJE IN SIMULACIJE D.O.O (Slovenia) |
| AEGIS-NET | Autonomous Expeditionary Guardian and Interceptor Swarm. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €3,991,866.28 | ARTEMIS RESEARCH & INNOVATION S.R.L. (Romania) |
| EM-Mortar | Electro Magnetic Modular Ordnance for Rapid Tactical Response. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €3,967,412.57 | YTSAB DEFENCE AB (Sweden) |
| MANTIS | AI-driven live augmented training system. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €3,997,405.26 | SATWAYS-OLOKLIROMENES LYSEIS ASFALEIAS KAI AMYNAS-IDIOTIKI EPICHEIRISI PAROCHIS YPIRESION ASFALEIAS (IEPYA)-ETAIREIA PERIORISMENIS EFTHYNIS (Greece) |
| PRIORITY | Disruptive materials for submarine invisibility. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €3,999,571.66 | SIMIDEA SL (Spain) |
| R3DSurfin | Robust 3D printed metallic components production. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €3,709,764.57 | DLYTE CHEMICALS SL (Spain) |
| ResistCAM | High-temperature resistant multispectral camouflage. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €3,930,825.25 | RESPILON MEMBRANES S.R.O (Czechia) |
| TAC | Tactically responsive in-space mobility and capture technology. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €3,999,732.82 | OSMOS X (France) |
| U-HARRIER | Unmanned heavy-lift aerial reconnaissance. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €3,999,652.04 | EDAIR TECHNOLOGIES SL (Spain) |
| 5G4DEF | 5G NTN for European defence operations. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €4,010,956.78 | INTEGRASYS SA (Spain) |
| EOBLINDING | Tracking and degrading Earth Observation satellites. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €4,845,633.12 | INTEGRASYS SA (Spain) |
| GNSS_ARMOUR | Multilayer anti-jam protection for GNSS receivers. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €4,007,785.15 | INTEGRASYS SA (Spain) |
| NEVMA | Neuromorphic event-driven vision. | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €5,028,348.79 | MILTECH HELLAS SA ANTIPROSOPEIES ILEKTRONIKON OPTIKON KAI MICHANOLOGIKON EIDON AE (Greece) |
| RESIST | REsilient Semiconductor Integrated design SysTem | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €4,964,501.45 | SPHERICAL SYSTEMS BV (The Netherlands) |
| SEQULITE | LIGHTWEIGHT SECURE COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL WITH HW-BACKED POST-QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €3,289,074.65 | OSMIUM ITALY SRL (Italy) |
| SOUND2 | Sonobuoy Optimization for Unmanned Deployment and Underwater Detection | Non- thematic calls for innovative and future-oriented defence solutions focused on SMEs | €5,912,180.97 | STAM SRL (Italy) |
About the author of this post
Sara Gavidia
Communications Manager
Funding Expert
LinkedIn
sara.gavidia@strata.team
Hello! I’m Sara 👋🏻 I’m the Lead content editor at Strata. Interested in the EDF? Then contact our Team of experts: they will offer personal support to review your case and help you prepare a great application!
