Ammunition Waste Collection and Disposal Unmanned Platform

Expected Outcome: Project should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: Research funders, policymakers and research communities in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) are provided with a multi-annual R&I programme on social transformations and resilience, responding to megatrends like climate change and biodiversity loss, digitalisation, demographic changes and unexpected shocks. Research investments on social protection and essential services, future of work, education and skills, and a fair transition to climate neutrality are increased. Stakeholders, including social partners and civil society, and policymakers are provided with evidence-based knowledge, tools and innovative solutions, which contribute to new policies and strategies for strengthening resilience, fairness, inclusiveness and social cohesion at European, national and regional level. Scope: Europe is undergoing critical social transformations driven by macro drivers of change, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, digitalisation and demographic change, which have been accelerated by events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. These transformations…

Expected Outcome: Europe's first long-term VET provider network for semiconductors; a larger and more diverse pool of qualified technicians; and increased intra- and extra-EU mobility of students and workers to fill skills gaps in semiconductor facilities. Scope: This call supports the establishment of a European-level federation of Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers focused on semiconductor industry roles. Projects should develop industry-aligned micro-credentials and reskilling programmes, with a strong emphasis on workers transitioning from other industrial sectors and on cross-border recognition of qualifications.

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes: Availability and integration of advanced, trustworthy, energy-efficient perception systems, exploiting technological advancements of Generative AI (GenAI) to enhance situational awareness and support safe decision-making; Enhanced Vulnerable Road User (VRU) safety, based on elevated, more temper-proof perception and understanding of their behaviour and intention predictions; Enhanced robustness of CCAM systems - both on-board and on the infrastructure side - in critical situations due to their training, virtual testing and validation in scenarios generated by GenAI, complementing existing scenario databases for the testing and validation of CCAM systems; Enhanced understanding of the relevance and limitations of using GenAI for CCAM; Tools and harmonised approaches for the use of GenAI in mobility technology development, training and validation, as well as for systemic applications such as traffic management and remote control, integrating them into existing approaches. Scope: Pilots and demonstrations using Level 3 and 4 vehicle services face major challenges in perception and…

Expected Outcome: Projects should contribute to all the following expected outcomes: Enhanced understanding, accompanied by documented good practices, showing what works to encourage multilingualism in society and what type of practices have led to safeguarding linguistic heritage, including lesser used, endangered and historically marginalised languages. Rigorous policy-relevant evidence, strategies and policy recommendations for promoting multilingualism and safeguarding linguistic diversity are available to policy makers, and users are involved in their development, especially the younger generation. Non-linguistic benefits of language maintenance and revitalisation are well documented, communicated and understood by different stakeholders. Citizens are empowered and engaged in the sustainable management of their own linguistic heritage and resources, with a focus on intergenerational dialogue and education activities, with particular attention to communities where oral transmission is the primary mode of language preservation. Maps and visual presentations showing the linguistic diversity in Europe are available, including a variety of existing languages (regional and minority…

Expected Outcome: Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: EU institutions and national decision-makers, have a better understanding of how to foster democratic resilience through media and digital literacy, equipping societies to adapt and thrive in the face of evolving technological, political, and societal challenges. Citizens are empowered to navigate the digital landscape with discernment and critical thinking, actively engaging with media and other source of information, ensuring informed democratic participation. Scope: As recalled by the “Safer together” report [1] , “over the past years, the Commission has already taken steps to counter hybrid threats (including foreign information manipulation and interference/FIMI) and enhance democratic resilience across the EU. It adopted, among other initiatives, the European Democracy Action Plan [2] to build more resilient democracies across the EU by promoting free and fair elections, strengthening media freedom, countering disinformation and FIMI and promoting information integrity. With the adoption of the Digital Services Act [3] (DSA) and its binding obligations for online platforms to combat the…

Expected Outcome: Proposals should contribute to the first two expected outcomes, and either the one listed under Focus 1, or the one listed under Focus 2. The potential of art-science and/or technology collaborations to address societal challenges and drive innovation is better understood. Guidance, toolkits, and actionable methodologies are developed to promote these collaborations, providing policymakers, professionals, and training organisations with clarity on intervention scope, applicability across various fields, and evaluation methods, metrics, or tools. New and existing national, European or international networks for art-science-technology collaborations are established or strengthened, expanding opportunities for artists to engage with science and technology. Focus 1 Approaches, methodologies and model interventions for integrating arts and creative practices to enhance soft skills across public and private sectors are developed, tested and disseminated. Focus 2 The effectiveness of critical artists’ engagement in interdisciplinary teams is demonstrated alongside the assessment of the viability of research-intensive emerging technologies through at least three low…

Scope: The proposals must demonstrate their disruptive impact on defence applications and address innovative technologies and solutions for defence, including those that can improve the readiness, deployability, reliability, safety and sustainability of forces in defence tasks and missions, for example in terms of operations, equipment, infrastructure, energy solutions, surveillance systems or digital solutions. Proposals must address disruptive knowledge, products and technologies in any area of defence interest (8 ) reaching at least TRL 4 (9 ).In addition, to best complement R&D efforts that already target civil applications and encourage the efficient spinning-in of knowledge, innovation and technological development to the defence sector, this topic also welcomes proposals for add-on research actions to adapt solutions originally developed for civilian applications and previously not applied in defence. Management mode : Action implemented in indirect management by the European Defence Agency. Targeted types of activities: Any activities eligible for a research action. However, proposals must not be limited to studies. Indicative budget: EUR 35 000 000 to support this…

Scope: This topic aims to follow up and complement previous activities for the development of an endo-atmospheric interceptor by maturing key technologies required to successfully counter hypersonic and ballistic threats up to TRL 6. It should build on specific concept designs and advance the required technologies by developing dedicated demonstrators, e.g. for airframe, propulsion, platform separation, lethality, threat tracking and acquisition. This topic contributes to the STEP objectives as defined in the STEP Regulation in the target investment area of defence technologies. Management mode: Action implemented in indirect management by the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation. Form of funding: Contribution Agreement. Entrusted tasks : Implementation of actual cost grants following a competitive call. Targeted types of activities: Studies, design, system prototyping and testing, not excluding upstream and downstream activities eligible for development actions. Indicative budget: EUR 100 000 000 for this topic under the EDF-2026-DA call and EUR 2 000 000 for the remuneration of the entrusted entity. Indicative number of proposals to be funded: One proposal is to be funded…

Scope: The automatic analysis of tactical situations using fleets of robots, drones and AI is an important research topic that lacks standardised benchmarks and objective evaluation campaigns. This call topic aims to set up a testing environment and organise a technological challenge in which research teams will participate, supported by another topic (EDF-2024-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAP-STEP) and possibly other sources of funding. The testing environment should enable objective comparisons between different approaches. Data should be collected during field tests, annotated and shared to enable the validation of the system performances based on precise evaluation criteria and plans, to be provided as part of the call document. Targeted types of activities: Integrating knowledge, not excluding upstream and downstream activities eligible for research actions. Indicative budget: EUR 7 000 000 for this topic under the EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE call. Indicative number of proposals to be funded: One proposal is to be funded for this topic.

Scope: The high speed and significant manoeuvrability of hypersonic vehicles, particularly hypersonic glide vehicles, create difficult conditions for target detection and tracking, which are exacerbated by changes in radar cross section characteristics. Radar waveforms and signal processing become essential to counter the effects induced by hypersonic threat dynamics. In addition, the last decade has seen a global increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for battlefield intelligence gathering and reconnaissance. Anti-UAV radars therefore need to be developed to detect, identify and track such systems. Innovative approaches (e.g. AI and cognitive methods) can provide the means to select the best waveform receiver filter combination to maximise radar detection and tracking performance also using a feedback loop between the received and transmitted signal characteristics. This topic therefore focuses on the development of an engineering development model (i.e. demonstrator) capable of supporting tasks such as demonstrating the maturity of innovative technologies in the radar domain and supporting the feasibility of implementing such technologies in terms of time,…