Key electronic components

Expected Outcome: Proposals are expected to contribute to one or more of the following: Quantum-resistant cryptographic primitives, also other than lattice-based approaches if relevant, that enhance the security and privacy of digital wallets, both for natural persons and wallets, as well as the design and implementation of post-quantum solutions for entity authentication and authenticated key establishment over insecure networks; Formal verification tools, improved High-Assurance Cryptographic Software (HACS) approaches and their integration in software workflows, to provide strong security guarantees in post-quantum migration, and enable streamlined evidence-based evaluation of secure systems that use cryptography. Scope: The development of new digital signatures and advanced cryptographic schemes, tailored specifically to the use cases and requirements in the context of wallets/eIDs, for privacy and business applications is highly relevant nowadays. Moreover, these devices need secure connections over insecure networks requiring protocols for entity authentication, authenticated key establishment, as well as Password Authenticated Key Exchange (PAKE) schemes for ensuring user…

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following expected outcomes: Improved protection of minors, including by more reliable age assessments and by minimising the use of intrusive age assessment methods; Improved adaptation, preparedness and cooperation of authorities in the fight against human trafficking; Expanded European-based knowledge on reliability, accuracy and effectiveness of age assessment methods. Scope: Many unaccompanied children and young persons arriving at the external EU borders and seeking asylum, lack official documents showing their identity and age. Age assessment methods are important as they contribute to the determination of, for example, where an individual will be initially housed and what services, supports, and legal processes they will receive to ensure protection and, if applicable, child protection. In other cases, minors are victim of trafficking of human beings (THB) criminal activities, either across the EU external borders, or within the EU borders. In other cases again, age assessment methods are necessary for law enforcement investigations on protecting children, forensic investigation, and/or the…

Expected Outcome: 1. Comprehensive support to EDICs, the Commission and Member States by: the provision of legal and operational advice to established EDICs, including on the compliance with the DDPP Decision, other EU legislation and where applicable national legislation; and maintaining a repository of thereof; support the Commission and Member States on the EDICs in preparation and in identifying and mobilising new EDIC initiatives, pursuing outreach activities and reporting progress in the State of the Digital Decade Report; creating and maintaining of consolidated data and information repository on EDICs, including best practices and data promoting EDIC results (quantified where possible), and reporting; accessible to relevant stakeholders; liaising and coordination between EDICs as well as between EDICs and other MCP implementation mechanisms and other relevant stakeholders, based on the collected data, propose milestones or avenues for future strategic development of EDIC ecosystem aligned with EU digital policy objectives, other support activities necessary to help achieve the objectives of the call. 2. The setting up of an EDIC’s community of practice, including…

Expected Impact: Projects are expected to deliver results aligned with the expected results set out in this call topic and to evidence their contribution through dedicated KPIs defined in the proposal. Expected results include: • demonstrable and sustainable increase in production capacity for the targeted ammunition, bombs and missiles production lines, enabled by operational joint filling plants and production lines; • measurable reduction of production lead time from order/production decision to delivery in UA; • improved timely availability and supply of defence products for UA, including increased delivery reliability and readiness of production lines; • effective cross-border cooperation between UA and EU that enables production ramp-up, qualification, integration and sustainment. Proposals shall define, baseline and track KPIs such as: filling throughput (e.g., units/month or tonnes/month as applicable), time-to-rate, lead-time reduction, line availability/uptime, acceptance/qualification output, qualified output delivered in UA, workforce trained where relevant, and indicators evidencing risk mitigation (e.g., safety performance and compliance readiness, supply robustness…

Expected Outcome: The main objective of this call is to develop employees’ involvement in undertakings by raising awareness and contributing to the application of European Union law and policies in this area. The call aims at supporting projects which seek to help accompany through social dialogue at company level the significant changes driven by industry transitions and, in particular, the take-up and effective functioning of European Works Councils. The call shall focus on one or a limited number of topical challenges with a view to maximise both the individual and aggregated impact of the selected projects. Scope: Actions to promote European level and strengthened transnational cooperation between social partners that address the following themes would be expected: - to promote exchange and wider dissemination of knowledge and good practices and to launch actions aimed at supporting the setting up and good functioning of European Works Councils, including the promotion of gender balanced European Works Councils; - to support workers’ involvement in the anticipation and management of change and the prevention and resolution of disputes in the event of various forms of…

Expected Impact: In the short term, the funding is expected to: Increase understanding and dissemination of challenges, risks and good practices in the priority areas identified under this call; Enhance communication, coordination and operational cooperation between authorities responsible for the prevention, detection and repression of corruption; Improve the availability and use of data, methodologies and tools for measuring corruption risks, trends and the impact of anti-corruption measures. Where applicable, proposals should demonstrate how they build on relevant previous or ongoing EU-funded projects and existing corruption measurement frameworks. In the long term, the funding is expected to: Improve the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of corruption across the EU; Contribute to the implementation of EU anti-corruption policy priorities, including recommendations addressed to Member States in the Rule of Law Reports and the European Semester, as well as the objectives of the Directive on combating corruption [to be updated when adopted]; Reduce the role of corruption as an enabler of organised crime and criminal infiltration into the licit economy; Foster…

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,…