Digital Ship and Naval Combat Cloud

The European Defence Fund has announced a call for proposals under the topic EDF-2025-DA-NAVAL-DSNCC-STEP, focusing on the development of a Digital Ship and Naval Combat Cloud. The grant aims to enhance the digital capabilities of naval units, targeting the design, prototyping, and testing of a digital platform for integrating ship systems and the initial design of a multidomain naval combat cloud. The budget allocated for this call is 54 million EUR, with a focus on promoting interoperability, reducing costs, and boosting the EU's strategic autonomy in naval operations.

Eligible applicants are required to be part of a consortium composed of entities established in EU Member States or EDF Associated Countries, including industries, research organizations, and cloud service providers that are EU-based. The funding mechanism is a grant provided through actual cost grants, categorized under Development Actions. The application process is an open call with a single-stage submission procedure, with the submission deadline set for October 16, 2025.

The expected impact of funded projects includes accelerating naval operations via real-time data exchange, optimizing data communication, and fostering commonality among naval systems. The objectives revolve around establishing a flexible digital architecture that allows for the integration of advanced systems, improving mission performance, operational readiness, and cost-effectiveness.

Proposal requirements include engaging in activities such as studies, design, system prototyping, and testing, with significant emphasis on cybersecurity and integrating Model-Based Systems Engineering approaches. The project also necessitates the involvement of EU-based cloud service providers.

Furthermore, the call encourages collaboration and synergy with related projects to prevent duplication and enhance overall effectiveness. The indicative timeline for submissions, admissibility conditions, award criteria, and necessary documents are detailed in the call document.

In conclusion, this EDF call represents a strategic initiative to modernize and enhance EU naval capabilities by developing a robust digital infrastructure and combat cloud system, with total funding of 54 million EUR available to qualifying consortia.

This is a call for proposals under the European Defence Fund (EDF) focusing on the development of a Digital Ship and Naval Combat Cloud, specifically topic EDF-2025-DA-NAVAL-DSNCC-STEP. It aims to design, prototype, and test a digital platform for integrating ship systems and to initiate the design of a multidomain naval combat cloud. The call is a Development Action (EDF-DA) implemented via actual cost grants, with a single-stage submission process. The opening date is 18 February 2025, and the deadline for submission is 16 October 2025, at 17:00 Brussels time. The total budget allocated to this topic is 54,000,000 EUR.

The expected impact of the projects funded under this call includes accelerating naval operations through real-time data exchange, optimizing data communication, promoting commonality of naval systems among EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries, increasing interoperability, reducing development and upgrade costs, and strengthening the European naval capability landscape.

The objective is to address the challenge of integrating rapidly evolving digital technologies into naval units by adopting a common ship digital architecture. This architecture should allow for flexible incorporation of new systems, maximize interoperability, and improve mission performance, operational readiness, system availability, training, automation, in-service support, and cost-effectiveness.

The specific objective is twofold: first, to design, prototype, and test a digital platform as an EU-based infrastructure framework for integrating and operating ship systems; and second, to launch the initial design of a multidomain naval combat cloud to bridge the gap between platform-level clouds and global combat clouds. This combat cloud should enable effective collaboration between naval assets across surface, sub-surface, and air domains.

Proposals should consider Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) for a realistic testing environment and address cybersecurity aspects, including trends like Data Centric/Dynamic Zero-Trust Security. The call contributes to the STEP objectives, focusing on deep and digital technologies.

The scope includes defining common services for ship systems, designing the ship digital architecture, identifying required standards, building and testing a prototype, and initiating the design of an EU-based multidomain naval combat cloud.

Eligible activities include studies, design, system prototyping, and testing. Studies should identify systems for integration, analyze required standards, define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), establish building blocks for the combat cloud, review the state-of-the-art, and review the Concept of Operations (CONOPS). Design activities involve detailing the system architecture and initiating the design of the combat cloud. System prototyping focuses on producing a prototype of the digital platform. Testing involves extensive validation of the proposed solution.

Cloud-based digital platforms must use service providers established, owned, and controlled within the EU Member States or EDF Associated Countries. Proposals should demonstrate synergies and avoid duplication with related projects under EDIDP and EDF, specifically mentioning topics EDF-2021-NAVAL-R-DSSDA, EDF-2021-NAVAL-R-SSHM, EDF-2021-DIGIT-D-MDOC, EDF-2022-DA-NAVAL-NCS, and EDF-2024-DA-NAVAL-FNP.

Functional requirements for digital architecture solutions include resilience, security, sustainability, and interoperability. The digital platform must follow an MBSE approach, provide a modular and adaptable architecture, include representative system functionalities, allow integration of new systems, provide necessary services, integrate systems using hardened standards, consider operational situations, apply AI and Big Data techniques for vulnerability detection, and be based on EU-owned cloud services. The multidomain naval combat cloud should apply and merge domains, combine real-time and non-real-time data, consider big data analysis, develop custom AI solutions, define communication network requirements, provide a modular and scalable concept, consider a decentralized approach, allow shifting operations between nodes, enable task prioritization, guarantee data protection, and optimize defensive and offensive actions.

The submission session opened on 18 February 2025.

Admissibility conditions include proposal page limits and layout as described in the application form and call document. Eligible countries and other conditions are detailed in section 6 of the call document. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria are in section 7. Submission and evaluation processes are in section 8 and the Online Manual. Award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are in section 9. The indicative timeline is in section 4, and legal and financial setup details are in section 10.

Required documents include the call document, standard application form, detailed budget table, participant information, list of infrastructure, co-financing declaration, actual indirect cost methodology declaration, harmonized capability declaration, declaration on procurement intent and common specifications, ownership control declaration, PRS declaration, model grant agreements, EDF Annual Work Programme, EDF Regulation 2021/697, EDF Programme Security Instruction (PSI), EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, rules for legal entity validation, LEAR appointment and financial capacity assessment, EU Grants AGA, Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual, Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions, and Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement.

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For help, contact DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS@ec.europa.eu. Additional resources include the Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ, EDF Info-days 2025, the IT Helpdesk, and the Online Manual.

In summary, this European Defence Fund call seeks to modernize naval capabilities by developing a common digital architecture and a multidomain naval combat cloud. The goal is to improve interoperability, reduce costs, and enhance the effectiveness of naval operations through the integration of advanced digital technologies, with a strong emphasis on cybersecurity and EU strategic autonomy. The call requires a comprehensive approach, including studies, design, prototyping, and testing, and emphasizes the use of EU-based cloud service providers. The total budget is 54 million EUR, and the deadline for submissions is October 16, 2025.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are legal entities (public or private bodies) established in EU Member States or EDF Associated Countries. Startups, SMEs, large enterprises, universities, and research institutes are potentially eligible, provided they meet the establishment criteria. Cloud service providers must be based, owned, and controlled in the EU or associated countries.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically Development Actions implemented via actual cost grants (EDF-2025-DA). The type of Model Grant Agreement is EDF Action Grant Budget-Based [EDF-AG].

Consortium Requirement: A consortium of multiple applicants is required.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility for applicants is EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries. Cloud service providers must be based, owned, and controlled in the EU or associated countries.

Target Sector: The target sectors are defense, naval, and digital technologies, specifically focusing on digital ship architecture, naval combat cloud, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, big data, and systems of systems.

Mentioned Countries: EU Member States, EDF Associated Countries, and Norway are mentioned.

Project Stage: The expected maturity of the project is development, validation, and demonstration. The call aims to design, prototype, and test a digital platform and initiate the design of a multidomain naval combat cloud.

Funding Amount: The budget for the EDF-2025-DA-NAVAL-DSNCC-STEP topic is 54,000,000 EUR.

Application Type: The application type is an open call with a single-stage submission process.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a grant to fund eligible activities.

Application Stages: The application process consists of a single stage.

Success Rates: The indicative number of grants is not specified.

Co-funding Requirement: The need for co-financing is indicated by the presence of a "Cofinancing declaration (EDF DA, DA LS AND ASAP)" among the application form templates.

Summary:

This European Defence Fund (EDF) call, titled "Digital Ship and Naval Combat Cloud" (EDF-2025-DA-NAVAL-DSNCC-STEP), seeks to enhance the digital capabilities of naval units by promoting the adoption of a common ship digital architecture and a multidomain naval combat cloud. The call aims to improve interoperability, reduce costs, and strengthen the EU's strategic autonomy in the naval sector. Eligible applicants are consortia of entities established in EU Member States or EDF Associated Countries, including industries, research organizations, and cloud service providers based, owned, and controlled in the EU or associated countries. The funding mechanism is a development action grant with a budget of 54 million EUR. The call requires mandatory activities such as studies, design, system prototyping, and testing, with a focus on cybersecurity and the use of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). The deadline for submission is October 16, 2025. The call contributes to the STEP objectives in deep and digital technologies, aiming to accelerate naval operations, optimize data communication, and promote commonality among EU naval systems.