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Defence Industry and Space
News article19 March 2019

2019 calls for proposals: European defence industrial development programme (EDIDP)

The European defence industrial development programme (EDIDP), established by Regulation (EU) 2018/1092, is an industrial programme of the EU aiming to support the competitiveness and innovation capacity of the union’s defence industry.

This programme will be implemented by the Commission through annual calls for proposals, to be published in 2019 and in 2020. The programme, with a financial envelope of €500 million will co-finance the joint development of defence products and technologies. The calls for proposals are based on a 2-year work programme defined in close cooperation with
EU countries and adopted by the European Commission on 19 March 2019. There will be 9 calls for proposals in 2019, and 12 in 2020.

The 2019 calls for proposals will address 9 categories of defence capabilities.

  • Preparation, protection, deployment and sustainability (1 call)

1. Multipurpose unmanned ground system (call EDIDP-MUGS-2019). This call aims at supporting the design and/or prototyping of a multipurpose architecture for unmanned ground systems and solutions for systems integration and manned-unmanned teaming.

  • Information management and superiority and command, control, communication, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR), cyber defence and cybersecurity (4 calls)

2. Permanent air or space capabilities for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and communication, tactical remotely piloted air systems (RPAS) and sensor suite for integration into air-traffic management (call EDIDP-ISR-2019). This call aims at supporting the design and/or prototyping of one or more of the following topics:

  • Low-observable tactical RPAS with the capability to provide near real-time information and with modern self-protection
  • European detect and avoid (DAA) function based on new sensors and processing for RPAS integration into air-traffic management
  • European high altitude platform station (Euro-HAPS) solution for union defence (surveillance of maritime zones, land borders or critical assets)
  • Persistent earth observation from space with automated interpretation of data and information, including artificial intelligence, cloud solutions and real-time on-board processing by sensors

3. Cyber situational awareness and defence capabilities, military networks and technologies for secure communication and information sharing (call EDIDP-CSAMN-2019). This call aims at supporting the design and/or prototyping of one or more of the following topics

  • Modular and adaptive tactical networks to control, change and manage network behaviour, including cybersecurity
  • Software suite enabling real-time cyber defence situational awareness for defence decision-making
  • Software suite solution, enabling real-time cyber threat hunting and live incident response, based on shared cyber threat intelligence

4. Positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) and satellite communication capabilities (call EDIDP-PNTSCC-2019). This call aims at supporting the design and/or prototyping of one or more of the following topics

  • European standardised and sovereign Galileo PRS navigation receiver capabilities compatible with GPS/PRS solution for defence purposes
  • European protected waveform to secure defence satellite communications in peacetime, missions and operations

5. European command and control (C2) system from strategic to tactical level (call EDIDP-ESC2S-2019). This call aims at supporting the design of capabilities and equipment needed for establishing the C2 system from strategic to tactical level, complementing existing European External Action Service's systems.

  • Engagement and effectors (3 calls)

6. Upgrade of current and development of next-generation ground-based precision strike capabilities (call EDIDP-NGPSC-2019). This call aims at supporting the design, prototyping and testing of beyond line of sight (BLOS) anti-tank capabilities.

7. Air combat capabilities (call EDIDP-ACC-2019). This call aims at supporting the study, design and/or prototyping of one or more of the following topics

  • Airborne electronic attack capability
  • Combat jet training platforms

8. Future naval platforms and related technologies (call EDIDP-FNPRT-2019). This call aims at supporting a study on naval platform technologies for defence purposes, including those able to operate in extreme climates and geographical environments

  • Cross-domain capabilities (1 call)

9. Innovative and future-oriented defence solutions (call EDIDP-SME-2019). This call, devoted to SMEs aims at supporting any action on innovative defence products, solutions, materials and technologies, including those that can create a disruptive effect and improve readiness, deployability, reliability, safety and sustainability of union forces in all spectrum of tasks and missions, for example in terms of operations, equipment, infrastructure, basing, energy solutions, new surveillance systems.

This last call will be specifically devoted to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to encourage the participation of such enterprises and foster innovation. The union’s financial support to actions resulting from the 2019 calls will be €243,250,000. EDIDP is a test phase towards the fully-fledged capability window of the European defence fund, scheduled for the period 2021-2027, which will be fitted with €13 billion.

The 2019 calls for proposals were published on 04 April 2019 and opened to applicants on 09 April 2019. Applicants will have until 20 September 2019 to submit their proposals. 

Related documents

2019 EDIDP work programme with description of actions

Details

Publication date
19 March 2019