Enhanced pilot environment

The European Defence Fund (EDF) is launching a call for proposals under the EDF 2025 Work Programme focused on enhancing pilot environments in air combat, specifically designated as EDF-2025-DA-AIR-EPE. This initiative aims to improve the human-machine relationship in future air combat scenarios by developing innovative technologies for cockpits.

Eligible applicants include small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large enterprises, research institutes, and public-private partnerships, with a strong emphasis on cross-border collaboration involving at least three entities from EU member states or associated countries, such as Norway. For the first time, Ukrainian entities are permitted to participate in some calls, particularly through cascade funding mechanisms.

The funding type is primarily grants, with up to 100% support for research actions and up to 80% for development actions. The total budget for the 2025 initiative is approximately €1.065 billion, with individual project budgets ranging from about €25 million to €79 million depending on the specific topic.

Collaborative consortia are mandatory for proposal submission. The projects can be at various stages, focusing on both research and development, which includes system prototyping, testing, qualification, and certification. The application process is a single-stage, with a submission deadline set for October 16, 2025.

The EDF targets several initiatives within defence technology, particularly emphasizing air combat systems, enhanced pilot environments, cyber defense, sensor technologies, innovations in interaction modalities (such as voice commands and haptic feedback), and crew monitoring systems (CMS).

Success rates have varied, with a noted competitive environment in previous calls where approximately 27% of funding requests were awarded to SMEs in 2024. Applicants may need to provide co-funding, typically around 20% for development actions but with some exceptions for research-focused initiatives.

In summary, the EDF 2025 funding opportunity seeks to advance capabilities in European air combat systems. It promotes innovation through interdisciplinary collaboration, aiming to develop next-generation cockpit technologies that improve situational awareness and operational effectiveness for pilots. The initiative encourages studies, design, and prototyping to bolster the EU defence industry and enhance mission outcomes.

This is a call for proposals under the European Defence Fund (EDF) focusing on enhanced pilot environments in air combat. The call, titled EDF-2025-DA-AIR-EPE, seeks development actions implemented via actual cost grants. The primary objective is to enhance the human-machine relationship in future collaborative air combat by developing innovative cockpit Human-Machine Interface (HMI) technologies. These technologies should provide pilots with better situational awareness, system understanding, and the ability to react effectively.

The call emphasizes the development of new equipment and software leveraging technologies like wearables, optics, haptics, voice command, virtual assistants, augmented reality, and 3D holography. The goal is to free crew members from repetitive tasks, allowing them to concentrate on high-value actions and improve overall combat effectiveness. The call specifically targets the development of European platforms for testing and demonstrating enhanced combat pilot technologies, aiming to consolidate EU excellence in this sector, generate inputs for future cockpit HMI development, increase mission capabilities, and strengthen EU industry independence.

The scope of the proposals should include maturing technological solutions for enhanced pilot environments through evaluation and demonstration in operational scenarios, producing platform-agnostic HMI specifications, and prototyping cockpit equipment. Proposals must address four key areas: adaptive human system collaboration, visualization, crew monitoring systems (CMS), and interaction modalities.

Adaptive human system collaboration should focus on improving tactical situational awareness and enabling ergonomic crew-machine cooperation with manned and unmanned assets. This includes developing adaptive collaborative HMIs for distributed environments and novel interaction principles for managing automated aircraft functions.

Visualization efforts should concentrate on advanced pilot information presentation capabilities, including 3D presentations, augmented reality, large area displays, 3D holography, and helmet-mounted display (HMD) solutions.

Crew monitoring systems (CMS) should focus on real-time monitoring of the crew's physiological and cognitive states to adapt the HMI and assist the aircrew in demanding operational environments. This includes support for CMS sensors, operator incapacity detection, hypo-vigilance monitoring, and assessment of mental workload, stress, and situational awareness.

Interaction modalities should explore and mature solutions for interaction, including sound (voice command, natural language processing, 3D sound), vision (eye-tracking), touch (multi-touch technologies), gesture controls, and haptic/tactile displays.

Eligible activities include studies, design, system prototyping, testing, qualification, certification, and development of technologies that increase efficiency across the lifecycle of defence products and technologies. Mandatory activities include studies in adaptive human system collaboration, visualization, CMS, and interaction modalities; design activities demonstrating developed solutions; and prototyping of developed solutions.

Proposals should also refine operational use-cases, evaluate mission capability improvements, and substantiate synergies with ongoing air combat activities. Functional requirements include supporting future air collaborative combat, improving human-machine performance, and ensuring technologies are scalable, platform-agnostic, and compliant with GDPR.

The call specifies several conditions related to admissibility, eligible countries, financial and operational capacity, evaluation and award processes, and legal and financial setup. Applicants must adhere to proposal page limits and layouts as described in the application form.

The call provides a budget of 54,000,000 EUR for EDF Development Actions (EDF-DA) under the topic EDF-2025-DA-AIR-EPE. The call is a single-stage submission process, with the opening date on 18 February 2025 and a deadline of 16 October 2025, 17:00:00 Brussels time.

Applicants can find partners through the Funding & Tenders Portal and are encouraged to contact the DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS@ec.europa.eu for help. The call also provides access to an IT Helpdesk and an Online Manual for technical support.

In summary, this European Defence Fund call seeks proposals for developing advanced cockpit technologies that enhance the pilot's ability to manage complex air combat scenarios through improved human-machine teaming. It emphasizes studies, design, and prototyping activities in adaptive HMIs, visualization, crew monitoring, and innovative interaction modalities, with the ultimate goal of improving mission effectiveness and strengthening the EU's defence industry.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated in the provided text. However, based on the nature of the European Defence Fund (EDF) and the types of activities supported, eligible applicants could include: SMEs, large enterprises, universities, research institutes, and other legal entities (public or private) established in eligible countries. It is likely that consortia are encouraged, as the projects often require diverse expertise.

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

Consortium Requirement: While not explicitly stated, the call encourages collaboration and specifies the need for consortia to address various aspects of the project. Therefore, a consortium is likely required or strongly preferred.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The eligible countries are described in section 6 of the call document. It is likely that the beneficiaries must be from EU member states and potentially associated countries, but this needs to be confirmed in the call document.

Target Sector: The target sector is defence, specifically focusing on air combat and training aircraft systems. This includes technologies related to: Human-Machine Interface (HMI), pilot status monitoring, Artificial Intelligence (AI) based decision-making support, augmented reality, displays, wearables, vocal dialogue, stereoscopy, crew monitoring systems, and interaction modalities (wearable, optics, haptics, vocal command, virtual operator assistant).

Mentioned Countries: No specific countries are explicitly mentioned in the provided text, but the call is part of the European Defence Fund (EDF), implying that EU member states are the primary beneficiaries.

Project Stage: The project stage is focused on development actions, including studies, design, system prototyping, testing, qualification, and certification. This suggests a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) ranging from research to demonstration and prototyping (TRL 3-6).

Funding Amount: The budget overview lists several topics with varying budgets. For example, EDF-2025-DA-AIR-EPE has a budget of EUR 54,000,000. Other topics range from EUR 25,000,000 to EUR 79,000,000. Therefore, the funding amount is variable, ranging from approximately EUR 25 million to EUR 79 million depending on the specific topic.

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 their development actions.

Application Stages: The application process is a single-stage process.

Success Rates: The indicative number of grants is not specified, making it difficult to assess the success rate.

Co-funding Requirement: The co-funding requirement is not explicitly mentioned in the provided text. However, the presence of a "Cofinancing declaration (EDF DA, DA LS AND ASAP)" in the list of application form templates suggests that co-funding may be required.

Summary:

This opportunity is a call for proposals under the European Defence Fund (EDF) for development actions related to enhanced pilot environments in air combat and training aircraft. The call aims to improve the human-machine relationship in future air combat scenarios by developing and integrating new technologies into the cockpit. These technologies include advanced HMIs, pilot status monitoring systems, AI-based decision support, and various interaction modalities. The projects should mature cutting-edge technological solutions, produce platform-agnostic specifications, and perform prototyping activities. Eligible activities include studies, design, system prototyping, testing, qualification, and certification. The call is open to consortia of entities established in eligible countries (likely EU member states and associated countries). The funding amount varies depending on the specific topic, ranging from approximately EUR 25 million to EUR 79 million. The application process is a single-stage open call with a deadline of October 16, 2025. Co-funding may be required. The overall goal is to enhance the capabilities of European air combat systems, strengthen the EU defence industry, and improve pilot safety and mission effectiveness.