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Grant Details

Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

This grant aims to develop and mature cutting-edge technological and engineering solutions for enhanced pilot environments in future combat aircraft. The core objective is to advance Human-Machine Interface (HMI) and Human-Machine Teaming (HMT) capabilities to improve pilot situational awareness, decision-making, and overall mission effectiveness in complex networked air warfare scenarios. - Target recipient type: Organizations with strong research and development capabilities in defense, aeronautics, and advanced human-machine interaction technologies. This may include companies of various sizes, research institutions, and universities. - Size: No specific size indicated. - SECTOR-SPECIFIC - Geographic scope: European Union Member States and potentially associated countries eligible for European Defence Fund (EDF) participation. - Key filtering criteria: Proposals must focus on innovative HMI/HMT for air combat, covering areas like adaptive collaboration, advanced visualization, crew monitoring systems, and novel interaction modalities. Mandatory activities include studies, design, and prototyping. - Grant frequency: Part of the European Defence Fund's annual call cycle, suggesting recurring opportunities.

Financial Structure

  • Total budget for this topic: 54,000,000.0 EUR
  • Funding type: Development actions implemented via actual cost grants, meaning eligible costs are reimbursed.
  • Minimum grant amount per project: None specified.
  • Maximum grant amount per project: None specified.
  • Eligible costs: Not explicitly detailed, but implied by eligible activities (studies, design, prototyping, testing, qualification, certification, development of technologies).
  • Matching fund/Co-financing requirements: A 'Cofinancing declaration' is listed as a required document for Development Actions (DA), strongly indicating that co-financing is required. Specific percentages are not provided in this document.
  • Indirect cost policies: An 'Actual indirect cost methodology declaration' is a required document, indicating that indirect costs are eligible but need to be declared based on a specific methodology.

Eligibility Requirements

Organizational Types
  • Eligible: Not explicitly defined in terms of legal structure, but typically includes industrial players (SMEs, large enterprises), research organizations, and universities with capabilities in defense technology development.
  • Implied: Entities capable of conducting in-depth studies, design activities, and system prototyping in the field of advanced aerospace and defense HMI technologies.
Geographic Requirements
  • Eligible: European Union Member States and associated countries participating in the European Defence Fund (EDF).
  • Countries: 'AT', 'BE', 'BG', 'HR', 'CY', 'CZ', 'DK', 'EE', 'FI', 'FR', 'DE', 'GR', 'HU', 'IE', 'IT', 'LV', 'LT', 'LU', 'MT', 'NL', 'PL', 'PT', 'RO', 'SK', 'SI', 'ES', 'SE'.
Technical Expertise
  • Required: Expertise in Human-Machine Interface (HMI), Human-Machine Teaming (HMT), advanced display technologies, sensor systems for physiological and cognitive monitoring, Artificial Intelligence (AI) for decision support, avionics, systems engineering, and integration for military aircraft.
Activity Requirements
  • Mandatory Activities: Proposals must cover 'Studies', 'Design', and 'System prototyping' as core tasks.
  • Optional Activities: 'Integrating knowledge' (activities increasing interoperability/resilience), 'Testing', 'Qualification', 'Certification', and 'Development of technologies' increasing efficiency across the life cycle of defense products are eligible but not mandatory.
Exclusion Criteria
  • Not specified in the provided text, but standard EU financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria apply as per section 7 of the call document (not provided).

Application Process

Application Process
  • Submission method: Electronic Submission Service via the Funding & Tenders Portal.
  • Process: Single-stage submission.
  • Submission start date: 2025-02-18
  • Submission deadline: 2025-10-16 00:00:00+0000
Required Documentation and Materials
  • Call document (available shortly).
  • Application form templates (specific to EDF, available in the Submission System).
  • Detailed budget table (EDF DA).
  • Participant information (EDF).
  • Cofinancing declaration (EDF DA).
  • Actual indirect cost methodology declaration (EDF).
  • Harmonised capability declaration (EDF DA).
  • Declaration on procurement intent and common specifications (EDF DA).
  • Ownership control declaration.
  • PRS declaration (EDF).
  • Model Grant Agreements (MGA) for EDF.
Support and Guidance
  • Email contact: [email protected] for help related to this call.
  • Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ.
  • EDF Info-days 2025.
  • IT Helpdesk for technical questions (e.g., login, submission issues).
  • Online Manual: Step-by-step guide for portal processes.

Evaluation Criteria

Specific award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in section 9 of the call document, which is not provided. However, the grant description outlines key areas and expected impacts that will likely form the basis of evaluation: Expected Impact and Contribution
  • Contribution to European platforms for testing and demonstrating combat pilot technologies.
  • Consolidation of a sector of excellence in the EU for enhanced combat pilot technologies.
  • Generation of inputs for mid-term and long-term development of next-generation air combat cockpit HMI.
  • Development of novel cockpit HMI technologies.
  • Increase in mission capability, efficiency, effectiveness, and performance in air combat missions.
  • Provision of a potential starting point for developing EU guidelines for advanced HMI design in Systems-of-Systems operations.
  • Opportunity for cross-ministry of defense and cross-industry exchanges.
  • Strengthening EU industry in advanced air combat cockpit technologies, fostering independence from third countries.
  • Identification of 'quick wins' for implementation on current or upcoming systems.
Quality and Innovation
  • Focus on 'cutting-edge technological and engineering solutions' and 'new or disruptive HMI technologies'.
  • Proposals should substantiate synergies and complementarity with foreseen, ongoing, or completed activities in the field of air combat, specifically referencing 'EDF-2021-AIR-D-EPE'.
Technical and Functional Requirements
  • Projects must contribute to the development of new generations of air combat and training aircraft, or upgrading existing ones.
  • Maturity of solutions through evaluation and demonstration in representative operational scenarios.
  • Production of common high-level 'platform agnostic' specifications and guidelines for HMI design.
  • Prototyping activities for cockpit equipment incorporating maturated solutions.
  • Address specific areas: Adaptive human system collaboration, Visualization (AR, large displays, 3D, HMD), Crew Monitoring Systems (CMS), and Interaction modalities (wearables, haptics, voice command).
  • Focus on future air collaborative combat, multi-modularity, flexibility, and adaptability of HMIs.
  • Improvement of human-machine performances, considering human factor aspects, physical/cognitive ergonomics, and anthropometric data.
  • Scalability for existing or future fighters, ensuring platform agnostic technologies.
  • Compliance with EU GDPR for data collection about humans.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance
  • Data Protection and Privacy: Treatments of data collection about humans to build models or algorithms must be compliant with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Technical Requirements
  • Scalability: Technologies developed should be scalable for existing or future fighter aircraft to allow for 'quick win' implementations.
  • Platform Agnostic: Developed technologies, concepts, solutions, guidelines, and specifications should be platform agnostic where possible.
  • Evaluation and Demonstration: Each technological building block and capability should be evaluated and demonstrated through physical or digital mock-ups and simulations, based on representative use-cases.
Strategic and Unique Aspects
  • Strengthening EU Industry: A core objective is to strengthen the EU industry in advanced air combat cockpit technologies to foster independence from third countries.
  • Synergies: Proposals must substantiate synergies and complementarity with foreseen, ongoing, or completed activities in the field of air combat, notably those described in the call topic 'EDF-2021-AIR-D-EPE' related to Enhanced pilot environment.
  • Collaborative Warfare: Take into account the new paradigm of Human-Machine Teaming (HMT) in future collaborative and connected air warfare, including adaptive cooperation between all manned and unmanned systems.
  • Human-Centric Design: Emphasis on human factor aspects, physical and cognitive ergonomics, and ensuring interfaces are adapted to aircrew anthropometrics.
  • Focus on Human-Machine Performance: Human-machine performance should be evaluated against criteria defined in the proposals.
Legal and Financial Set-up
  • Legal and financial set-up of the grants described in section 10 of the call document (not provided).

Grant Details

defence defense aerospace aeronautics air combat pilot environment human-machine interface hmi human-machine teaming hmt cockpit avionics military technology augmented reality virtual reality 3d holography wearables optics haptics voice command virtual operator assistant ai artificial intelligence machine learning ml crew monitoring system cms situational awareness decision support system prototyping design studies testing qualification certification gdpr compliance european defence fund edf platform agnostic military aviation unmanned systems integration r&d innovation
Enhanced pilot environment
EDF-2025-DA-AIR-EPE
Development actions implemented via actual cost grants
SME ENTERPRISE UNIVERSITY OTHER
AT BE BG HR CY CZ DK EE FI FR DE GR HU IE IT LV LT LU MT NL PL PT RO SK SI ES SE
OTHER
DEVELOPMENT GROWTH MATURE
OTHER
FUNDING RESEARCH_DEVELOPMENT PILOT_PROJECTS INNOVATION_COMMERCIALIZATION
54000000.00
None
None
EUR
100.00
Oct. 16, 2025, midnight
Not specified, refers to section 4 of the call document.