This grant aims to explore and develop 'chiplet' technology in combination with heterogeneous packaging for defence applications. The core objective is to create new processing power capabilities with reasonable cost and power consumption. The target recipients are legal entities (public or private bodies) from EU Member States or EDF Associated Countries. This is a SECTOR-SPECIFIC grant focused on microelectronics for the defence industry. The geographic scope is limited to EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries. Key filtering criteria for initial screening include: collaborative research in chiplet technology, specific defence applications, and establishment within eligible countries. This grant is part of the broader EDF-2025-RA call, contributing to the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), and is issued annually.
Financial Structure
Total budget allocated for this specific topic (EDF-2025-RA-MATCOMP-CDA-STEP) is EUR 25 000 000.
No specific minimum or maximum grant amount per project is stated, but the call document notes that normally 1 project is expected to be funded for this topic.
The currency for all financial amounts is EUR.
The funding rate for Research Actions (RA) under this call is 100% of eligible costs.
Eligible costs are reimbursed on an actual cost basis.
Equipment costs are reimbursed based on depreciation only.
Applicants must possess stable and sufficient financial resources; a financial capacity check will be carried out.
An 'actual indirect cost methodology declaration' is required if applicants use actual indirect costs; otherwise, a default flat rate will apply.
Prefinancing guarantees may be required depending on the financial capacity assessment.
Eligibility Requirements
Organization Type
Must be a legal entity (public or private body).
Natural persons are NOT eligible, with the exception of self-employed sole traders where the company does not have a legal personality separate from the natural person.
International organizations are NOT eligible unless their members are exclusively EU Member States or EDF associated countries AND their executive management structure is located in an eligible country.
Entities without legal personality may exceptionally participate, provided their representatives can undertake legal obligations on their behalf and offer guarantees for the protection of EU financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
Geographic Establishment
Applicants must be established in an EU Member State or a listed EEA country ('EDF associated country').
The executive management structure of applicants must be located in an eligible country.
All infrastructure, facilities, assets, and resources used for the project must be located or held in an eligible country. Other assets may be used exceptionally if certain conditions are fulfilled (e.g., no competitive substitutes readily available, not contravening EU/MS security interests, no non-associated third-country control).
Control and Security
Must NOT be subject to control by a non-associated third country or non-associated third-country entity, unless approved guarantees are provided by the Member State or EDF associated country where they are established.
Entities subject to EU restrictive measures (under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)) are NOT eligible to participate in any capacity.
Entities subject to EU conditionality measures (e.g., Hungarian public interest trusts as per Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506) are NOT eligible to participate in any funded role.
Consortium Composition
Mandatory minimum of 3 independent applicants (beneficiaries) from 3 different eligible countries.
Subcontractors involved in the action (with direct contractual relationships, or to which at least 10% of total eligible costs are allocated, or needing access to classified information) and associated partners must also comply with the establishment and control conditions.
Financial and Operational Capacity
Must have stable and sufficient financial resources to successfully implement the projects and contribute their share. This is assessed via documents like profit/loss accounts, balance sheets, and audit reports.
Must possess the necessary know-how, qualifications, and resources (human, technical, and other) to successfully implement projects of comparable size and nature. This is assessed based on the competence and experience of applicants and their project teams.
Public bodies and international organizations are exempt from the operational capacity check.
Application Process
Timeline
Call opening: 2025-02-18.
Application deadline: 2025-10-16 17:00:00 CET (Brussels time).
Evaluation period: October 2025 - April 2026.
Information on evaluation results: April 2026.
Grant Agreement (GA) signature target: By 2026-12-31.
Project duration: Between 12 and 48 months. Extensions are possible if duly justified and processed through an amendment to the grant agreement.
Submission Process
Applications must be submitted electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System.
The submission procedure is 'single-stage'.
Required documentation includes:
'Application Form Part A': Contains administrative information and a summarised budget (filled in directly online).
'Application Form Part B': Technical description of the project (template to be downloaded, completed, and re-uploaded). This part has a strict page limit of 100 pages; evaluators will not consider additional pages.
Mandatory annexes (templates downloaded, completed, and re-uploaded with Part B):
Detailed budget table (EDF RA).
Participant information (including any previous projects).
List of infrastructure, facilities, assets, and resources.
Actual indirect cost methodology declarations (if actual indirect costs are used).
Ownership control declarations (for beneficiaries, affiliated entities, and subcontractors involved in the action).
PRS declaration (if the project requires access to Galileo PRS information).
All mandatory annexes must be provided in the requested format (PDF unless otherwise specified) by the deadline; failure to do so may render the proposal inadmissible or lead to negative consequences.
At submission, applicants must confirm they have the mandate to act for all participants, and that the information is correct and complete, and that all participants comply with eligibility conditions.
A 'Declaration of Honour' (DoH) must be signed by each beneficiary and affiliated entity before the grant signature.
The IT Helpdesk is available for technical aspects of proposal submission.
The Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual provides step-by-step guidance.
Evaluation Criteria
Relevance and Scope Alignment
The proposal's content must correspond wholly or at least in part to the topic description for 'Chiplet for Defence Application'.
Proposals 'must' address all mandatory requirements outlined in the 'Scope and types of activities' and 'Functional requirements' sections; failure to do so may deem the proposal out of scope.
Proposals 'should' address 'should' requirements; failure may negatively impact the scoring.
Addressing 'may' requirements can positively impact the scoring.
Projects must comply with EU policy interests and priorities (e.g., environment, social, security, industrial, and trade policy).
Projects must respect EU values and European Commission policy regarding reputational matters.
Quality and Impact
Demonstrated thorough analysis of possible architectures for chiplet implementation in defence.
Design of at least one military application based on the chiplet approach.
Proposed architectures should prioritize and effectively utilize EU-based technologies where available.
Ability to ensure non-dependence for defence systems using the integrated solution.
Demonstrated cost efficiency for low volume quantities, including non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs.
Particular attention to optimizing power consumption of the designed systems.
Scalability of the architecture, showing how System-in-Package (SiP) performances and/or functionalities can be adjusted through the addition or removal of chiplets.
Integration of cybersecurity features to protect the resulting SiP is a plus.
Functional requirements for the proposed product/technologies include:
Chiplet interfaces compatible with different military applications (standardization).
2.5D or 3D integration based on EU capacities.
Advanced packaging based on System-in-Package technology.
Design optimized for power consumption.
Compatibility with operations in harsh environmental conditions of the targeted application.
Compliance with REACH and ROHS regulations.
Expected impacts must be addressed, contributing to:
Development and sharing of a common hardware library of chiplet building blocks.
Identification of EU-based building blocks compatible with advanced architecture for defence components.
Increased competitive advantage for the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) in components development and integration.
Increased flexibility of architectures to create multifunctional systems adaptable to capability needs.
Implementation
Evaluation of the competence and experience of the applicants and their project teams.
Assessment of available operational resources (human, technical, and other) or the measures proposed to obtain them before task implementation.
Adherence to the highest ethical standards and all applicable EU, international, and national laws.
Compliance with security rules, including those for classified information, and a clear understanding of limitations (e.g., no 'TRES SECRET UE/EU TOP SECRET' projects).
Description of synergies and complementarity with foreseen, ongoing, or completed activities in advanced packaging and semiconductor nodes (e.g., European Chips Act projects like Chips JU, Important Projects of Common European Interest in microelectronics).
Compliance & Special Requirements
Regulatory Compliance
Projects must comply with all applicable EU, international, and national law.
Designs and proposed products must be compliant with REACH and ROHS regulations.
The regulatory framework for this funding program includes Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 (EU Financial Regulation), EDF Regulation 2021/697, and STEP Regulation 2024/795.
Security and Confidentiality
Projects involving classified information must undergo security scrutiny and may be subject to specific security rules detailed in a 'Security Aspects Letter' (SAL) annexed to the Grant Agreement.
Projects involving information classified 'TRES SECRET UE/EU TOP SECRET' (or equivalent) cannot be funded.
Classified information at 'CONFIDENTIEL UE/EU CONFIDENTIAL' or higher (or 'RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED' if national rules require) may only be:
Created or accessed on premises with Facility Security Clearance (FSC) from the competent national security authority (NSA).
Handled only in a secured area accredited by the NSA.
Accessed and handled only by persons with valid Personnel Security Clearance (PSC) and a need-to-know.
At the end of the grant, classified information must be returned or continuously protected according to applicable rules.
Subcontracting tasks involving classified information requires prior written approval from the granting authority and is limited to entities established in an EU Member State or a non-EU country with a security of information agreement with the EU.
Disclosure of classified information to third parties requires prior written approval.
Beneficiaries must ensure their projects are not subject to third-country/international organization security requirements that could affect implementation or the grant award.
The proposal may address the integration of security features (cybersecurity) within the chiplet architecture, especially for protecting the resulting System-in-Package (SiP).
Ethical Standards
Projects must comply with the highest ethical standards, including the highest standards of research integrity.
Proposals will undergo an ethics review, and specific ethics rules may be imposed as grant conditions.
Strategic Alignment and Unique Aspects
This topic contributes to the objectives of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) in the target investment area of deep and digital technologies.
Proposals should substantiate synergies and complementarity with foreseen, ongoing, or completed activities in advanced packaging and advanced semiconductor nodes, such as those described in other EDF call topics or projects under the European Chips Act (e.g., Chips Joint Undertaking, Important Projects of Common European Interest).
The project aims to develop and share a common hardware library of chiplet building blocks, identify EU-based building blocks, and increase competitive advantage for the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB).
Prohibitions and Exclusions
Projects that do not implement the objectives set out in Article 3 of the EDF Regulation are ineligible.
Projects concerning products/technologies whose use, development, or production is prohibited by international law are ineligible.
Projects concerning the development of lethal autonomous weapons without meaningful human control over selection and engagement decisions when carrying out strikes against humans are ineligible (exceptions for defensive early warning systems and countermeasures).
Projects where 'background' (pre-existing information) or 'results' (foreground information) would be subject to control or restriction by a non-associated third country or entity (directly or indirectly, including technology transfer) are ineligible.
Financial support to third parties is explicitly NOT allowed under this call.
Grant Details
chiplet
defence
microelectronics
semiconductor
integrated circuit
heterogeneous packaging
system-in-package
military applications
radar systems
electronic warfare
communication systems
munition applications
signal processing
cybersecurity
eu-based technologies
research actions
digital technologies
deep technologies
r&d
innovation
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