BRUSSELS, March 30 () –
The European Commission has adopted this Thursday the annual program of the European Defense Agency (EDA, for its acronym in English) endowed with 1,200 million euros for research projects and collaborative development of military capabilities.
With this step, Brussels unlocks new funds for projects aimed at jointly developing strategic Defense capabilities and technologies, especially focused on 34 areas and structured into four thematic calls for proposals.
Since 2021, the European Executive has invested more than 3,000 million euros in EDA programs. The calls, in particular, will pave the way to develop next-generation combat systems, main battle tanks, European indirect fire capabilities, as well as strategic large cargo airlift. In addition, specific hardware architecture solutions for energy-efficient Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems will be promoted.
As a novelty, the work program includes a new innovation support fund, called EUDIS, with which Brussels wants to support innovative companies, start-ups and small and medium-sized companies with support measures worth 220 million.
The idea is to help these types of companies to overcome the traditional entry barriers to markets, introduce ideas and make a difference for the security and defense of the EU.
