European Defense Fund

7,95 billion

Fund for investment and collaborative projects for defense capability development

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DG / Responsible Agencies / National Contact Points:DEFIS | NCP

Potential beneficiaries

Trade consortia, companies of all sizes, including small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-caps, research centers and universities.

Description and objectives

The European Defense Fund promotes collaboration among member states to overcome fragmentation and strengthen the competitiveness and technological sovereignty of the European defense industry. This is an area:

• Essential for Europe’s future, for its strategic sovereignty and ability to act as a guarantor of security, and subject to increasing international pressure;
• Subject to constant high-end technological evolution and where rising costs (much of which is for research and development activities) are increasingly beyond the spending capacity of individual member states, which devote a decreasing measure of their budgets to the development of new defense systems;
• Where cooperation among member states (in strategic, technological and operational terms) remains very weak and where European industry and markets remain fragmented, with unnecessary duplication and limited impact.

The European Defense Fund thus has the following objectives:

• To support collaborative research, to significantly increase the future performance and capabilities of the defense sector throughout the Union;
• Support the collaborative development of products and technologies in the area of defense, in line with the priority and common capabilities shared by member states in this area.

Types of actions and projects

The European Defense Fund supports collaborative defense research and development actions and promotes cooperation in the field among all EU countries. The Fund:

• Ensures participation of defense companies of all sizes, including small- and mid-caps throughout the EU;
• It strengthens and stimulates the opening of supply chains and increasing the competitiveness of the European defense industry;
• Supports the acquisition of state-of-the-art, interoperable defense technologies and equipment in line with the needs of member states;
• Provides consistent support throughout the R&D cycle to ensure consistency and bridge the gap between R&D, investment and production;
• Promotes interoperability of defense products and technologies developed for member states through common technical requirements.

Only actions undertaken in cooperation between at least three entities from at least three different member states or associated countries are eligible, and there is an incentive for SMEs and mid-cap companies to participate.

Highlights

In the previous programming period, the European Defense Fund was preceded by two pilot programs with limited durations and budgets, the Preparatory Action for Defense Research and the European Defense Industrial Development Program. The new Fund echoes its architecture in a unique and coherent framework.