Land collaborative combat including air-land

The EDF-2025-DA-GROUND-LCC-STEP grant opportunity focuses on advancing land collaborative combat technologies that integrate air and land systems. It is part of the European Defence Fund (EDF) and aims to enhance military capabilities through multi-national collaborative projects. The grant targets consortia of at least two legal entities from different EU Member States or EDF Associated Countries, such as companies, SMEs, research institutes, and universities. The funding type is actual cost grants, with a total budget of €44 million allocated for this call, and individual project funding is expected to range from €1 million to €5 million.

Eligible applicants must apply as a consortium, which is mandatory, and the projects must take place in geographical areas that include EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries, explicitly mentioning Ukraine for third-party funding alignment with NATO interoperability goals. The focus of this grant is on development actions that involve technology prototyping, testing, and validation (expected technology readiness level TRL >7) related to collaborative combat systems.

The application process is a single-stage open call with a submission deadline of October 16, 2025. Successful projects are expected to enhance battlefield transparency, promote interoperability among platforms, and foster agile, networked, and secure military operations. Proposals must demonstrate innovative uses of technologies such as artificial intelligence, edge computing, and secure communication systems. Moreover, activities supporting the development of collaborative capabilities in areas like land engagement, unmanned system coordination, and joint logistics are required.

Applicants are encouraged to provide documentation supporting their claims, such as feasibility studies, prototyping results, and evidence of co-funding from other sources, as co-funding is implied but not explicitly required. Data should show clear contributions towards the strategic goals of the European Union, including compliance with military standards, interoperability with NATO systems, and attention to ethical implications surrounding new technologies in defense.

Overall, this grant aims to propel the EU's defense innovation agenda while ensuring cohesive action across multiple member states, thereby enhancing the continent's strategic autonomy and industrial competitiveness in the defense sector.

This is a call for proposals under the European Defence Fund (EDF) for Development Actions (EDF-DA) specifically targeting Land Collaborative Combat (LCC) including air-land capabilities. The call, titled EDF-2025-DA-GROUND-LCC-STEP, aims to enhance military land systems through innovative, multi-national collaborative functional capabilities. The overall budget for this topic is 44,000,000 EUR, and it follows a single-stage submission process. The call opened on February 18, 2025, and the deadline for submissions is October 16, 2025, at 17:00 Brussels time.

The expected impact of successful projects includes enabling agile, secure, network and data-centric operations, building a credible interoperable fighting force, introducing innovative collaborative combat technologies adaptable to various platforms, providing a governmental EU framework for industry innovation, addressing capability needs of multiple EU member states, and increasing the EU's strategic autonomy.

The objective is to improve existing collaborative functions (TRL>7), develop new collaborative capabilities through studies, prototyping, and demonstrations (TRL 7). These capabilities should encompass collaborative force protection, Threat Evaluation and Weapon Assignment (TEWA), collaborative engagement, and land-based engagement and firing in multi-domain warfare. Additional capabilities should include unmanned systems supervision and coordination (Manned-Unmanned Teaming or MUM-T), joint logistics, and support for dismounted soldiers. The call also aims to enhance connectivity and interaction of collaborating platforms through adaptive communication systems (radios, 5G, satellite), collaborative dynamic service orchestration, automated supervision, AI and ML-supported mission planning, cybersecurity functions, and accurate positioning in contested environments. Field demonstrations are required to validate system prototypes.

The specific objective addresses the insufficient battlefield transparency in complex multi-domain warfare. Deployments should align with NATO and EU operations, building on Federated Mission Networking (FMN) specifications. Native interoperability between all relevant platforms is crucial. The call encourages the adoption of new technologies like AI, edge computing, cloud-native architectures, and DevSecOps to improve decision-making speed. It contributes to the STEP objectives in deep and digital technologies.

The scope requires proposals to develop and demonstrate innovative multi-national collaborative land combat capabilities, enhancing military land systems in use or development in EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries. The collaborative scenario should include all levels of operation, from dismounted soldier to command post, ensuring secure information sharing through a robust communication framework. Solutions should cover joint military functions in the land environment: C2, Intelligence, Manoeuvre, Fires, Information, Civil Military Cooperation (CIMIC), Sustainment, and Force Protection.

Eligible activities include increasing interoperability and resilience, conducting feasibility studies, designing defence products, system prototyping, testing, qualification, certification, and developing technologies that increase efficiency across the life cycle of defence products and technologies. Activities that aim to create knowledge are not eligible.

Mandatory activities include developing key enabling technologies, implementing a coordinated architectural framework, analyzing applicable standards, analyzing EU Test and Evaluation (T&E) capabilities, and specifying and realizing real-world demonstrations. Synergies with the EDF-2022-DA-GROUND-CGC call topic are required.

Functional requirements range from basic information sharing and data fusion to collaborative decision support and common action. Capabilities should include data filtering and consideration of Navigation Warfare (NavWar) environments.

Technical solutions should be based on a common set of metadata, an agile architecture for multinational force integration, AI-supported services, scalable architecture, a system to control electromagnetic and data signatures, standard interfaces, a robust on-board platform network, automated data fusion, and a modern Human-Machine Interface (HMI).

Standardization should be integral, using the EDSTAR platform. Solutions should consider EDSTAR technical domains like ammunitions, IT, armored vehicles, camouflage, CBRN defence, and military clothes. Proposals should address standardization gaps and ensure compatibility with FMN spiral specifications. Additional enabling standards like NATO STANAG 4754 and 4822 should be included. The proposal should implement coalition services for land collaborative combat in a sustainable fashion.

Mandatory legal and ethical considerations include relevant national regulations regarding information sharing and ethical implications of AI and Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS).

Collaborative actions should include handover of ISR robotic assets, integration of mature functions into target platforms, and study of new functions for collaborative action.

Proposed solutions should ensure automated management of UAVs and UGVs with AI support, collaborative observation and protection, TEWA with AI support, use of speech recognition and C2 by voice implementing Large Language Model (LMM), interoperability of cyber capabilities, safety in all systems, availability of Time Deterministic Hardware and Software, and interoperability with cloud-based platforms and NATO/FMN approaches.

The call document and annexes provide detailed information on admissibility conditions, eligible countries, financial and operational capacity, evaluation and award processes, and legal and financial setup. Application form templates, budget tables, participant information, and model grant agreements are also available.

In summary, this European Defence Fund (EDF) call seeks to advance land collaborative combat capabilities by funding projects that develop and demonstrate innovative technologies and systems. The focus is on enhancing interoperability, improving battlefield transparency, and integrating new technologies like AI and unmanned systems to create a more effective and resilient fighting force within the EU and its associated countries. Successful projects will need to demonstrate a clear path to higher technology readiness levels (TRL), ensure compliance with relevant standards, and address ethical considerations related to the use of advanced technologies in defence. The call encourages collaboration between EU Member States and associated countries to develop solutions that meet common capability needs and increase the EU's strategic autonomy in the defence sector.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated but can be inferred to include entities from EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries. Given the nature of the European Defence Fund, eligible applicants would likely include a mix of entities such as SMEs, large enterprises, research institutes, universities, and other relevant organizations involved in the defense sector.

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: The opportunity requires a consortium of multiple applicants, as it emphasizes multi-national collaborative efforts and the involvement of different EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility includes EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries.

Target Sector: The target sector is defense, specifically focusing on land collaborative combat, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, edge computing, cloud-native architectures, and related technologies.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity explicitly mentions EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries. It also mentions NATO in the context of deployments and interoperability.

Project Stage: The project stage is primarily focused on development and demonstration, with an emphasis on bringing existing collaborative functions to a higher level of maturity (TRL>7) and developing new collaborative capabilities through studies, prototyping, and demonstrations (TRL 7).

Funding Amount: The funding amount for the EDF-2025-DA-GROUND-LCC-STEP topic is EUR 44,000,000.

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

Nature of Support: The beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a grant to support their projects.

Application Stages: The application process involves a single stage.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned in the provided text.

Co-funding Requirement: The need for co-financing is implied by the presence of a "Cofinancing declaration (EDF DA, DA LS AND ASAP)" among the call documents, suggesting that applicants may need to secure additional funding from other sources.

Summary:

This European Defence Fund (EDF) call, specifically EDF-2025-DA-GROUND-LCC-STEP, focuses on Land Collaborative Combat (LCC) including air-land, aiming to enhance military land systems through innovative, multi-national collaborative functional capabilities. The call seeks to improve battlefield transparency and interoperability among various platforms and EU partners, leveraging new technologies like AI, edge computing, and secure communication frameworks. The goal is to develop and demonstrate advanced solutions for collaborative combat, increase strategic autonomy for the EU, and provide a framework for industry to build state-of-the-art systems.

Eligible applicants from EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries are expected to form consortia to address the development and demonstration of these capabilities. The projects should bring existing collaborative functions to a higher level of maturity (TRL>7) and develop new collaborative capabilities through studies, prototyping, and demonstrations in the operational environment (TRL 7). The call emphasizes the importance of secure information sharing, data fusion, collaborative decision support, and common action across all levels of operation, from dismounted soldiers to command posts.

The total budget for this specific topic is EUR 44,000,000, and the application process involves a single-stage submission with a deadline of October 16, 2025. Applicants are required to submit various documents, including a detailed budget table, participant information, and declarations related to co-financing and harmonized capabilities. The call also encourages standardization and interoperability with existing NATO and FMN systems.