The European Commission (EC) has adopted yesterday the fifth annual Work Programme under the European Defence Fund (EDF), allocating over €1 billion to defence collaborative research and development projects.

With the 2025 EDF Work Programme, the Commission unlocks significant additional funding to support the development of critical defence technologies and capabilities. The Work Programme allocates around €100 million each in critical fields such as ground combat, space, air and naval combat, as well as energy resilience and environmental transition.

The EDF25 Work Programme supports the development of critical defence technologies and capabilities required in line with the EU capability priorities agreed by Member States and further elaborated in the Strategic Compass. It launches 9 competitive calls for proposals addressing 31 topics. This includes 15 topics to support research actions, 15 topics to support development actions and 1 topic in support of the EDF National Focal Points network. 14 of the proposed call topics support the objectives of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) in the field of digital technologies and deep-tech innovation, clean and resource-efficient technologies and biotechnologies. Projects meeting the eligibility requirements of this call will be awarded a STEP Seal. In addition, 2 specific grant agreements will further support the Alliance for defence medical countermeasures.

A budget of around or more than €100 million addresses future challenges in the fields of ground combat, space, air combat and energy resilience and environmental transition. Furthermore, more than €40 million of EU funding is allocated to R&D efforts in critical areas in the current and future operational context, such as cyber, naval combat, underwater warfare, simulation and training, advanced passive and active sensors.

Calls for proposals will prepare the ground for a wide range of enabling technologies related to autonomous triage and evacuation of injured personnel, multifunctional information distribution system, human-AI dialogue, chiplets for defence applications, soldier systems, and great-depth enabling technologies.

4% of the EDF 2025 budget is dedicated to a call addressing disruptive technologies. In addition, around 6% is devoted to two non-thematic calls on innovative and future defence solutions, inviting specifically SMEs to apply for research and development actions.

Calls for proposals are expected to be opened for submission in mid-February 2025, with a deadline for submission of 16 October 2025.