AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of small robots and drones – organisation of a technological challenge"

European Defence Fund call EDF-2026-LS funds the organisation of a technological challenge to evaluate AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of small robots and drones, including setup of test infrastructures, data collection and annotation, and execution of field and data-based evaluation campaigns. The topic has an indicative budget of €7,000,000 delivered as an EDF lump-sum grant for a research action (100% funding) and a project duration of 48 months. Eligible applicants are consortia of legal entities established in EU Member States or EDF-associated countries, with a minimum of three independent beneficiaries from three different eligible countries and compliance with security, ownership/control and annex requirements. Opening date is 11 February 2026 and the submission deadline is 29 September 2026 (single-stage, Part B limited to 100 pages; submit via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal).

Funding Opportunity Overview

Objective

Funds the organisation of a technological challenge to evaluate AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of small robots and drones. The action must set up a common testing environment, run field and data-based evaluation campaigns, collect and annotate sensor data, define objective evaluation plans and enable sharing of datasets for comparative validation.

Who can apply

Consortia of legal entities established in EDF-eligible countries (EU Member States and EDF-associated countries). Applicants include research organisations, industry (including SMEs and mid-caps), defence contractors and test-range providers, subject to EDF ownership/control, security and eligibility rules.

Indicative Budget and Award:€7,000,000 indicative budget for this topic. One proposal is expected to be funded. Deadline for submission: 29 September 2026, 17:00 Brussels time ¹.

1. 1Consortium minimum: typically at least 3 independent beneficiaries from 3 different eligible countries (see call document for exact eligibility).
2. 2Participants must be legal entities with executive management in an eligible country; associated partners and subcontractors have specific conditions.
3. 3Security, ownership/control declarations and potential facility/personnel security clearances apply for classified work or access to sensitive datasets.

Action type: EDF Lump Sum Grant (Research action implemented as a technological challenge). Funding covers activities to integrate knowledge, organise evaluation campaigns, collect/annotate/share field data and manage challenge infrastructure. Participation in linked topic supporting participating teams is expected; consortia must commit to evaluation campaigns and data sharing.

Footnotes

1. 1Full topic description, deadlines and application templates available on the Funding & Tenders Portal EDF topic page.

AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of small robots and drones – organisation of a technological challenge (EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAO)

Programme: European Defence Fund (EDF) — Research actions in the form of a technological challenge implemented via lump sum grants (EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE). Type of action: EDF-LS (Lump Sum Grants) for Research Actions (RA). Opening date: 11 February 2026. Deadline: 29 September 2026, 17:00:00 Brussels time. Deadline model: single-stage. Expected duration: 48 months. Indicative topic budget: €7,000,000. Indicative number of grants for this topic: 1. Topic page and submission via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAO topic page.

Scope and Objectives

This topic funds the organisation of a multi-year technological challenge to objectively and comparatively assess AI-based tactical situational awareness using fleets of small robots and drones in ground environments. The organiser must set up and operate a test environment and evaluation campaigns where research teams, funded separately under the linked participation topic (EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAP-STEP), will deploy systems and modules. The testing framework must enable fair, reproducible comparisons across approaches through common datasets, agreed evaluation protocols and metrics, and well-controlled field test scenarios.

• Core purpose: design, implement and run a technological challenge with objective, standardised evaluation of AI-driven perception, data fusion and autonomy for tactical situational awareness in complex ground settings.
• Key outputs: detailed evaluation plans, annotated datasets, secure data-sharing framework, agreed metrics and tools, execution of field and data-based test campaigns, objective performance measurements, and debriefing workshops.
• Linkage: organiser coordinates closely with participating research teams under EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAP-STEP; actions will be linked via the Model Grant Agreement “linked action” mechanism and require a collaboration agreement between participants of both actions.

Activities, Functional Requirements and Deliverables

Eligible activities for this organiser topic focus on integrating knowledge (mandatory), with optional studies and design, and explicitly exclude prototyping, testing, qualification, certification and lifecycle efficiency activities. The organiser’s work must cover the full evaluation chain from planning to execution and data curation under a robust governance with all stakeholders.

• Mandatory activities (integrating knowledge):
• — Set up hardware and software infrastructures for evaluating threat detection and classification under the challenge.
• — Collect, curate and annotate sensor data from field campaigns; define and establish “ground truth” for measured outputs; distribute and maintain datasets and assess their quality.
• — Coordinate with stakeholders to draft, circulate and finalise detailed evaluation plans based on the preliminary evaluation plan; manage field and data-based test campaigns; conduct objective performance measurements per agreed protocols and metrics; organise debriefing workshops.
• Functional requirements:
• — Prepare detailed evaluation plans building on the preliminary plan (Appendix 1 in the call fiche), including scenarios, test ranges, conditions, reference coordinate systems, data volume and classes to annotate, quality control of annotations (e.g. double annotation and inter-annotator agreement), trusted data-sharing framework, campaign schedules, metric implementation rules and significance testing.
• — Balance realism and technical feasibility: scenarios must reflect operationally relevant but technically tractable situations; metrics and protocols must be representative of military needs.
• — Programme field test campaigns assuming participation of at least four teams, with provisions to scale to additional teams and impact analysis on the programme.
• — Submit evaluation plan drafts sufficiently early to gather feedback; document and justify any changes lacking full consensus in terms of technical feasibility, scientific value and representativeness.
• Expected impact:
• — Strengthened EU-level collaboration and clarity on capabilities in AI-based tactical situational awareness.
• — Improved technologies and certification pathways for automatic threat detection in ground tactical applications.
• — Better comparability and transparency of system performance for developers, funders and users; enhanced armed forces’ situational awareness.

Budget, Funding Rate, Payments and Cost Rules

• Topic budget: €7,000,000 (one project expected).
• Form of funding: Lump Sum Grant under EDF Research Actions (RA). Funding rate: 100% of eligible contributions.
• Lump sum basis: fixed ex-ante from the detailed budget table; beneficiaries do not report actual costs but must evidence that work packages are properly completed.
• Equipment cost rule: depreciation only.
• Indirect costs: 25% flat-rate of eligible direct costs by default or actual indirect costs if conditions are met (with Actual Indirect Cost Methodology Declaration endorsed by national pricing authority).
• Geographic restriction for eligible costs: only for activities carried out in eligible countries; assets/resources outside eligible countries may be authorised exceptionally but remain ineligible for reimbursement.
• Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP): allowed up to €60,000 per third party (e.g. to bring in specialised expertise), within the ceiling and conditions in Annex 4.
• Payments: typically prefinancing (often around 55% as indicative practice for LS grants), optional additional prefinancing and interim payments, and final payment against approved deliverables and completed work packages as per the Grant Agreement.

Eligibility and Participation Rules

• Eligible participants: legal entities (public or private) established in eligible countries (EU Member States including OCTs, and EDF-associated countries). Executive management must be established in eligible countries. Entities must not be controlled by a non-associated third country/entity unless ownership/control guarantees are approved by the competent national authority per EDF Regulation Article 9(4).
• Consortium composition: minimum 3 independent beneficiaries from 3 different eligible countries.
• Associated partners and subcontractors involved in the action must meet the same establishment and control conditions; non-eligible associated partners may participate exceptionally without funding and under strict safeguards (no contravention to EU/MS security and defence interests, no unauthorised access to classified info, no control/restriction by non-associated third countries, etc.).
• Disallowed: natural persons (except self-employed sole traders without separate legal personality), international organisations unless composed solely of EU/associated countries with executive management in an eligible country.
• SMEs and start-ups: explicitly eligible and welcome; SME/Mid-cap bonuses apply in other EDF schemes, but here funding rate is 100% under RA lump sum.
• Security provisions: projects may involve classified information; SAL (Security Aspects Letter) and PSI (Programme Security Instruction) apply. Possible requirements include Facility Security Clearance (FSC), Personnel Security Clearance (PSC), accredited CIS for handling EUCI, and compliance with Commission Decision 2015/444 and national frameworks. At least one beneficiary may need FSC before grant signature; classified information handling is strictly regulated.

Evaluation, Award Criteria and Timeline

• Submission and evaluation: single-stage application; one-step evaluation by an evaluation committee with external experts.
• Award criteria (max 45 points; overall threshold 30; no individual thresholds):
• — Excellence and potential of disruption (max 5; weight 2).
• — Innovation and technological development (max 5; weight 2).
• — Competitiveness (max 5; weight 1).
• — EDTIB autonomy (max 5; weight 1).
• — Creation of new cross-border cooperation (max 5; weight 2).
• — Implementation (max 5; weight 1).
• Priority order for ties: Excellence and potential of disruption, then Innovation and technological development, then Competitiveness, then Creation of new cross-border cooperation; if needed, broader geographic coverage (number of countries represented) may be used.
• Indicative timetable: Opening 11 Feb 2026; Deadline 29 Sep 2026; Evaluation Sep 2026–Mar 2027; Information on results Mar 2027; Grant Agreement signature by 31 Dec 2027.

Application Process and Required Documents

• Portal submission: electronic only via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Proposals must be submitted as a password-protected single ZIP archive (AES-256) containing Part B and annexes; password must be sent before the deadline to DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS-PWD@ec.europa.eu, referencing proposal ID and archive name.
• Part A: online administrative forms (coordinator and participants, summarised budget).
• Part B: technical description (max 100 pages including work package descriptions), using the official template; content includes project summary, excellence, innovation, competitiveness, EDTIB autonomy, cross-border cooperation, implementation, ethics and security, declarations.
• Mandatory annexes (templates available in the Submission System):
• — Detailed budget table (EDF LS RA).
• — Participant information (including previous projects, key staff).
• — List of infrastructure, facilities, assets and resources.
• — Actual Indirect Cost Methodology Declarations (if opting for actual indirect costs).
• — Ownership control declarations (including for associated partners and subcontractors involved in the action); ownership control guarantees if applicable.
• — PRS declaration (only if Galileo PRS access is required).
• Security and ethics: classified material must not be uploaded via the Portal; contact DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS@ec.europa.eu to arrange secure delivery. Part B and annexes must not be locked beyond the ZIP encryption and must follow layout rules.
• Partner search: entities can publish partner requests via the Portal when logged in.

Templates and Application Structure

• Part B structure (condensed outline):
• — Project summary.
• — 1. Excellence and potential of disruption: overall concept; compliance with objectives, scope, functional requirements and expected impact; advantage/potential for disruption.
• — 2. Innovation and technological development: innovation potential; complementarity with previous/ongoing R&D; spin-off potential.
• — 3. Competitiveness: competitive advantage; EU/global market growth potential; IP strategy.
• — 4. EDTIB autonomy: non-dependency reduction; security of supply; alignment with capability priorities (EDA CDP).
• — 5. Creation of new cross-border cooperation: new cooperation; planned future cooperation; substantial participation of cross-border SMEs/mid-caps.
• — 8. Implementation: work plan and WBS; work packages with objectives, tasks, roles (COO, BEN, AE, AP), milestones, deliverables (with type, dissemination level including EUCI markings where applicable), timetable; consortium set-up and management; project management and M&E; cost-effectiveness and financial management; risk management; communication, dissemination and visibility.
• — 9. Other: ethics; security.
• — 10. Declarations: PESCO and SME/Mid-cap bonuses (where applicable), PRS, lethal autonomous weapons compliance, background/results free from third-country control, double funding, FSTP justification if exceeding thresholds.
• Key annex templates provided by the Portal:
• — Participant Information (organisation data, key staff, prior projects, affiliated entities/associated partners).
• — Location of Infrastructure, Facilities, Assets and Resources (including FSC status and justifications for any non-eligible country use — unfunded).
• — Actual Indirect Cost Methodology Declaration (with national pricing authority confirmation).
• — Ownership Control Guarantee (if control by non-associated third country; requires national authority approval).
• — PRS Declaration (if PRS access is needed).
• — Model Grant Agreement (EDF/ASAP/EDIRPA Lump Sum MGA) and Programme Security Instructions (PSI) for classified work.

Security, Ethics and Legal Provisions

• Security: projects may be subject to security scrutiny; SAL sets classification rules; EUCI handling must follow Decision 2015/444 and applicable national rules; FSC/PSC may be required; CIS must be accredited to handle EUCI; subcontracts with classified tasks need prior written approval; disclosure of classified info to third parties needs prior approval.
• Ethics: proposals undergo ethics review; specific ethics deliverables may be required; compliance with EU, international and national law and high standards of research integrity is mandatory.
• IPR: results belong to the consortium; background and results must not be subject to control or restriction by non-associated third countries; access rights and policy access to results for EDF RA apply per the MGA; communication/dissemination requires explicit security clearance where applicable.
• EDTIB autonomy and security of supply: proposals must support EU non-dependency, strengthen supply chains and address EU-agreed capability priorities.
• Financial and operational capacity: checked during grant preparation; joint and several liability regime for recoveries applies (limited up to maximum grant amount per beneficiary unless otherwise set in the Data Sheet).

Categorisation and Structured Extraction

Eligible Applicant Types:SME, startup, mid-cap, large enterprise, university, research institute, nonprofit, government or public research body, NGO with eligible defence R&D role, and other legal entities established in eligible countries. Subcontractors and associated partners are possible under EDF conditions; natural persons are generally not eligible except self-employed sole traders without separate legal personality. Executive management must be in the EU/associated countries; non-associated third-country control requires approved guarantees.

Funding Type:Grant — EDF Lump Sum Grant for Research Actions (100% funding of eligible contributions).

Consortium Requirement:Consortium. Minimum 3 independent beneficiaries from 3 different eligible countries.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility):EU Member States (including OCTs) and EDF-associated countries (currently Norway). Entities must have executive management in eligible countries and not be controlled by non-associated third countries without approved guarantees. Entities from non-associated third countries may exceptionally participate as unfunded associated partners under strict safeguards and with granting authority agreement.

Target Sector:Defense; artificial intelligence; autonomous systems and robotics; drones/UAVs and UGVs; multi-sensor perception and data fusion; benchmarking and evaluation science; sensing (visual, radar, acoustic, environmental); swarming and collaborative autonomy; secure communications; software tools and metrics; data annotation and curation.

Mentioned Countries:EU Member States; Norway (EDF-associated). Notes in Q&A and call text reference that entities established in Ukraine cannot be beneficiaries (they may be considered as associated partners only under strict conditions and without EDF funding); UK is not eligible under current EDF rules. For definitive eligibility refer to the work programme’s list of participating countries and association status.

Project Stage:Research and integration: organisation and execution of a technology challenge, evaluation planning, dataset production and curation, field and data-based evaluation campaigns, objective performance measurement and dissemination of analysis. No prototyping, testing, qualification or certification activities are funded under this organiser topic beyond what is necessary to run evaluations.

Funding Amount:Up to the topic budget of €7,000,000 for a single grant in this topic. The call-level budget for EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE is €30,000,000 shared with the linked participation topic; this organiser topic has a dedicated €7,000,000 envelope.

Application Type:Open call, competitive, single-stage submission via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal (Part A online; Part B and annexes as password-protected ZIP). Non-electronic submissions are not permitted.

Nature of Support:Money (grant). FSTP cascade funding is optionally available to support external contributors, capped at €60,000 per third party.

Application Stages:1 stage (single-stage call). Post-evaluation, successful proposals proceed to Grant Agreement Preparation including security scrutiny where applicable.

Success Rates:Not published. The topic intends to fund exactly one proposal, making the competition outcome binary at topic level; overall success rate depends on the number and quality of proposals received.

Co-funding Requirement:No co-funding is required for eligible activities under this Research Action lump sum grant (funding rate 100%). Beneficiaries must ensure overall financial capacity; some costs (e.g. assets located outside eligible countries) are ineligible and would require own resources if used.

Key Compliance Points and Frequent Clarifications

• Ownership and control: all beneficiaries, affiliated entities, subcontractors involved in the action and associated partners provide ownership control declarations; non-EU/Norway ownership may be accepted only with approved guarantees (no contravention to EU security/defence interests and full safeguarding of IPR/results).
• Subcontracting: core tasks cannot be subcontracted; associated partners cannot lead work packages. Subcontracting shares may be limited; certain EDF topics have strict caps.
• Classified work: no EU TOP SECRET may be funded; CONFIDENTIEL/SECRET EU information requires FSC/PSC and accredited secure areas/CIS; detailed provisions in SAL/PSI apply (e.g. handling, storage, transport, international visits, incident reporting).
• Data rights and sharing: datasets must be shared within the challenge framework via a trusted data-sharing platform; data annotation quality control and inter-annotator agreement are required; replay/reproduction capability for experiments must be supported by participating teams.
• Equipment and depreciation: equipment is reimbursed via depreciation only; purchases and subcontracting must follow best value for money (or lowest price, as appropriate) and avoid conflicts of interest.
• Lump sum reliability: the detailed budget table underpins the lump sum; ineligible elements can trigger reductions during grant preparation or after audits.

Where to Apply and Get Help

• Submission and topic details: EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAO topic page.
• Call fiche (official call document with annexes and preliminary evaluation plan): EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE call fiche (PDF).
• Model Grant Agreement and reference documents: Portal Reference Documents.
• Online Manual and IT help: Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual.
• Call mailbox: DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS@ec.europa.eu. Password submission for ZIP: DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS-PWD@ec.europa.eu.
• National Focal Points (NFPs) for EDF: guidance and partner search support available via DG DEFIS website.

Administrative Facts at a Glance

Long Summary and Explanation

This EDF topic funds a single pan-European organiser to run a rigorous technological challenge on AI-enabled tactical situational awareness with swarms of small aerial and ground robots. The organiser will build the testing and evaluation backbone: specifying realistic yet tractable scenarios, controlling field trials, aggregating and annotating sensor data, and operating secure data-sharing that lets teams compare methods objectively. Performance must be assessed with common, pre-agreed metrics and protocols, accompanied by sound statistics and significance testing. The organiser’s deliverables include detailed evaluation plans, quality-controlled datasets and annotations, published metrics and tools, executed campaigns, objective measurements on all submitted systems, and debrief workshops to accelerate learning and convergence. The linked participation topic (AISAP-STEP) funds research teams that will deploy systems within this organiser’s framework; both actions are contractually linked and must sign a collaboration agreement. Funding is provided as a 100% lump sum; the project budget is set ex ante from a detailed budget table and paid against completed work packages and deliverables. Only entities established and managed in the EU or EDF-associated countries (currently including Norway) may be beneficiaries, and they must not be controlled by non-associated third countries unless stringent ownership guarantees are approved by national authorities. The minimum consortium is three independent beneficiaries from three eligible countries, but the organiser should be robust enough to conduct multi-year campaigns with at least four participating research teams and potentially more. The action may involve handling EU classified information, so SAL/PSI rules and possible FSC/PSC and accredited CIS apply. Submission is via the EU Portal in a single stage; applicants must upload Part B and mandatory annexes as a password-protected ZIP and respect page limits and templates. Evaluation weighs excellence and potential disruption, innovation, cross-border cooperation, competitiveness, EDTIB autonomy and implementation. The topic aims to deliver measurable advances in understanding and improving AI-based tactical awareness, reduce fragmentation through a common testbed and datasets, and ultimately strengthen the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base by providing credible benchmarks and certification readiness for emerging systems. Applicants should assemble strong technical, test range, data governance and security capabilities; lay out clear annotation and quality processes; provide transparent metric implementations; and demonstrate a credible plan to manage logistics, safety, multi-team scheduling, and scaling. With a single €7 million grant and a fixed 48-month window, the organiser’s effectiveness will hinge on early co-design of the evaluation plan with stakeholders, rigorous data management, and an inclusive yet secure framework enabling trusted collaboration and repeatable progress measurements across successive campaigns ¹.

Footnotes

1. 1Primary sources: official topic page and call fiche for EDF-2026-LS on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, including the call document with objectives, scope, activities, functional requirements, budget, evaluation, eligibility and legal/security provisions. See: Topic page and Call fiche (PDF).

EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAO: AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of small robots and drones – organisation of a technological challenge

This call topic under the European Defence Fund (EDF) aims to establish a testing environment and organise a technological challenge for research teams developing AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of small robots and drones. The challenge addresses the lack of standardised benchmarks and objective evaluation campaigns in automatic tactical situation analysis with robot fleets, drones, and AI. Supported by the linked topic EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAP-STEP and possibly other funding sources, the testing environment enables objective comparisons of approaches. Data from field tests will be collected, annotated, and shared for performance validation based on precise evaluation criteria detailed in the call document.

Objectives and Scope

The primary objective is to set up hardware and software infrastructures for testing threat detection and classification, collect and annotate sensor data from participating teams, and organise evaluation campaigns. Mandatory activities under integrating knowledge include coordinating evaluation plans with stakeholders, managing field and data-based test campaigns, measuring system performances per agreed protocols, and conducting debriefing workshops. Proposals must describe criteria for work package completion, such as producing evaluation plans, annotated databases, performance measurements, and organising events. Financial support to third parties (FSTP) is allowed within set ceilings if justified.

Eligibility and Who Can Apply

Eligible applicants are legal entities (public or private bodies) established in EU Member States (including OCTs) or EDF-associated countries (currently Norway), with executive management structures in eligible countries. They must not be controlled by non-associated third countries unless guarantees approved by the relevant Member State or associated country are provided. Minimum consortium: three independent beneficiaries from three different eligible countries. Subcontractors involved in the action and associated partners must generally meet the same conditions. Natural persons are ineligible except self-employed persons. International organisations are ineligible unless their members are exclusively Member States or associated countries with executive management in eligible countries.

Funding Details

Indicative Budget:€7,000,000 for this topic. One proposal expected to be funded.

Funding Type:EDF Lump Sum Grant (EDF-LS) for Research Actions (RA). Funding rate: 100% for research actions. Lump sum reimburses fixed amount based on estimated project budget, not linked to actual costs.

Maximum Grant Amount:Must not exceed the topic budget (€7,000,000).

Duration and Timeline

Project duration: 48 months. Opening date: 11 February 2026. Deadline: 29 September 2026, 17:00 Brussels time. Single-stage submission. Evaluation: September 2026 - March 2027. Grant agreement signature: by 31 December 2027.

Evaluation Criteria

• Excellence and potential of disruption (weighting 2)
• Innovation and technological development (weighting 2)
• Competitiveness (weighting 1)
• EDTIB autonomy (weighting 1)
• Creation of new cross-border cooperation (weighting 2)
• Implementation (weighting 1)

Overall threshold: 30/45 points. Proposals evaluated against operational capacity and award criteria.

Key Requirements and Conditions

• Proposals must address organisation of technological challenge per preliminary evaluation plan (Annex 5 of call document).
• Equipment costs: depreciation only.
• FSTP allowed within ceiling (max €60,000 per third party).
• Submission: Electronic via Funding & Tenders Portal. Part B limited to 100 pages.
• Mandatory annexes: Detailed budget table, participant information, list of infrastructure, ownership control declarations, etc.
• Security: Projects may involve classified information; facility/personnel security clearances required if applicable.
• Ethics: Compliance with highest ethical standards and applicable laws.

Functional Requirements

Proposals must detail evaluation plans based on preliminary plan (Annex 5), including scenarios, test ranges, data annotation quality control, trusted data sharing framework, evaluation procedures, and statistical significance tests. Scenarios balance realism, challenge, and feasibility. Accommodate at least four teams; describe impact of additional participants. Draft plans submitted early for stakeholder feedback; changes justified considering technical feasibility, scientific relevance, and military needs.

Expected Impact

• Foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and partnerships in AI-based tactical situational awareness.
• Improve understanding of European industry capabilities.
• Advance automatic threat detection technologies for tactical ground applications.
• Support certification of technologies.
• Enhance tactical situational awareness for EU armed forces.
• Clarify system performances for stakeholders including developers, funders, and users.

Application Process and Documents

Submit via EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Part A: administrative data online. Part B and annexes: password-protected ZIP (AES-256). Page limit: 100 pages for Part B. Mandatory annexes include detailed budget table (EDF LS RA), participant information, infrastructure list, ownership control declarations, PRS declaration (if applicable). Call document sections detail admissibility, eligibility, evaluation, and award processes.

Support and Contact

Contact: DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS@ec.europa.eu. Consult Online Manual, call document, EU Grants AGA. Partner search available on portal. Q&As: 56 items on topics like SME assessment, third-country work eligibility, equipment depreciation, technological challenge specifics.

Primary source: EU Funding Portal. Call document: Call Fiche.

Footnotes

1. 1Detailed conditions (admissibility, eligibility, evaluation, etc.) in sections 5-10 of call document.