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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

The grant aims to explore and mature technologies required to destroy or neutralise enemy artillery potential, thereby ensuring the survival of own forces and safeguarding their operational capacity. It focuses on counter-battery capabilities. - Core objective: Research and mature technologies for effective counter-battery capabilities. - Target recipient type: Legal entities (public or private bodies), forming consortia. - Target recipient size: Not explicitly limited, but the European Defence Fund generally fosters SMEs and mid-caps. - Designation: SECTOR-SPECIFIC (Defence, military technology, counter-battery systems). - Geographic scope: EU Member States and listed EEA countries (EDF Associated Countries). - Key filtering criteria for initial screening: - Focus on defence and military applications, specifically counter-battery systems. - Mandates a consortium application. - Limited to entities established in EU Member States or EDF Associated Countries. - Projects must involve research actions and adhere to specified 'must' activities. - Grant frequency: Part of the annual European Defence Fund Work Programme 2025, suggesting a recurring context.

Financial Structure

Total budget allocated for the EDF-2025-RA-GROUND-CBC topic is EUR 20,000,000 for the year 2025.
Funding is provided as actual cost grants.
The funding rate is 100.0% for Research Actions.
Reimbursement for equipment costs follows a depreciation only model.
Financial support to third parties is not allowed.
A financial capacity check is performed for applicants. If unsatisfactory, measures such as enhanced financial responsibility, prefinancing paid in instalments, or prefinancing guarantees may be required. Public bodies and individual grants not exceeding EUR 60,000 are typically exempt from this check.
If actual indirect costs are used, a detailed methodology declaration is required. If this declaration is missing, incomplete, or non-compliant, the default flat rate applies (in accordance with Article 15(1) of the EDF Regulation).

Eligibility Requirements

Organization Type

Legal entities (public or private bodies) are eligible.
Natural persons are generally not eligible, with the exception of self-employed persons (sole traders) where the company does not have legal personality separate from the natural person.
International organisations are not eligible, unless they are international organisations whose members are exclusively Member States or EDF associated countries and whose executive management structure is in a Member State or EDF associated country.
Entities without legal personality may participate exceptionally, provided their representatives can undertake legal obligations on their behalf and offer guarantees for the protection of EU financial interests equivalent to legal persons.

Consortium Composition

Proposals must be submitted by a minimum of 3 independent applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.
Subcontractors involved in the action and associated partners must also comply with establishment and control conditions.

Geographic Location

All applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be established in one of the eligible countries: EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)) or listed EEA countries (EDF Associated Countries).
Applicants must have their executive management structure established in eligible countries.
Infrastructure, facilities, assets, and resources used for the project must be located or held in an eligible country. Other locations are only exceptionally allowed with prior agreement and no funding.

Control and Security

Applicants must not be subject to control by a non-associated third country or non-associated third-country entity, unless they can provide guarantees approved by the Member State or EDF associated country where they are established.
Associated partners not established in eligible countries or subject to non-associated third-country control may participate exceptionally without funding, if specific conditions are fulfilled (e.g., not contravening EU/MS security interests, results not subject to control/restriction).

Technical and Operational Capacity

Applicants must have the necessary know-how, qualifications, and resources to successfully implement the projects and contribute their share, including sufficient experience in projects of comparable size and nature.
Operational capacity is assessed based on the competence and experience of applicants and their project teams (human, technical, and other resources).
Public bodies, Member State organisations, and international organisations are exempted from the operational capacity check.

Financial Capacity

Applicants must have stable and sufficient resources to successfully implement projects and contribute their share.
A financial capacity check is performed for all beneficiaries (unless exempted for public bodies or individual requested grant amounts not exceeding EUR 60,000).

Exclusion Criteria

Applicants are ineligible if subject to an EU exclusion decision or specific exclusion situations (e.g., bankruptcy, grave professional misconduct, fraud, breach of social security/tax obligations, significant deficiencies in previous EU contracts).
Entities subject to EU restrictive measures (under Article 29 TEU and Article 215 TFEU) are not eligible in any capacity.
Entities subject to EU conditionality measures (e.g., Hungarian public interest trusts established under Hungarian Act IX of 2021) are not eligible in any funded role.

Application Process

Application Submission

Applications must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System.
Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals must be complete, containing all requested information and required annexes.
Required documents include:
Application Form Part A (administrative information, summarised budget – filled online).
Application Form Part B (technical description – template downloaded, completed, re-uploaded).
Mandatory annexes: detailed budget table (EDF RA), participant information, list of infrastructure/facilities/assets/resources, actual indirect cost methodology declarations (if applicable), ownership control declarations, PRS declaration (if applicable).
Failure to provide all mandatory annexes in the requested format by the deadline may render the proposal inadmissible or lead to ineligibility.
The amounts entered in the online summarised budget table must match the detailed budget table; the online table prevails in case of discrepancies.
Applicants must confirm their mandate to act for all participants and verify the correctness and completeness of information at submission.
A Declaration of Honour (DoH) must be signed by each beneficiary and affiliated entity before grant agreement signature.
Proposals lacking full support from all participants will be rejected.
Applications must be readable, accessible, and printable.

Application Format

Proposals (Part B) are limited to a maximum of 100 pages, including work package descriptions; additional pages will not be considered by evaluators.

Timeline

Call opening: 2025-02-18.
Submission deadline: 2025-10-16 15:00:00+00 (17:00:00 CET).
Evaluation period: October 2025 - April 2026.
Information on evaluation results: April 2026.
Grant Agreement (GA) signature: By 2026-12-31.

Project Duration

The project duration must be between 12 and 48 months.
Longer durations may be accepted in duly justified cases.
Extensions are possible if duly justified and processed via an amendment.

Support and Assistance

For help related to this call, contact [email protected].
Access to EDF Info-days 2025, Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ, IT Helpdesk, and the Online Manual is available.

Evaluation Criteria

Adherence to Scope and Requirements

Proposals are evaluated on how they address the 'must', 'should', and 'may' requirements specified in the topic's 'Scope and types of activities' and 'Functional requirements' sections.
Failure to address a 'must' requirement may result in the proposal being considered out of scope.
Addressing a 'should' requirement positively impacts scoring; failure to do so may negatively impact scoring.
Addressing a 'may' requirement positively impacts scoring.

Quality and Impact

Contribution to the development and increased maturity of innovative technologies specifically adapted to counter-battery systems for armies of EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries.
Potential to develop low-cost and, if needed, expendable alternatives for high-risk missions.
Opportunity to find commonalities for generic targeting in depth.
Increase in EU industry capability to produce counter-battery systems.
Consolidation of the offer of EU competitive solutions for the global market.
Reduction of dependencies on non-EU or non-EDF Associated Countries suppliers by boosting the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) and promoting the development of an EU solution.

Technical Excellence and Innovation

Research on new and innovative technologies useful for counter-battery capability.
Possibilities for adaptation of existing state-of-the-art technologies for counter-battery capabilities (detect, locate, identify, communicate).
Research on passive and active sensors portfolio (acoustic, seismic, optical/optronics, Radar/ESM).
Research on possible carrier systems for sensors (e.g., Unmanned Aerial/Ground/Underwater Vehicles (UxVs), balloons, vehicles, stationary platforms).
Research on new and innovative deploying mechanisms, presenting an optimal compromise on cost/performance.
Ability to timely detect, locate, and identify different typologies of indirect enemy effectors (e.g., artillery, mortars, rockets, loitering munitions).
Demonstrated minimum range of at least 200 km (tactical depth) and desired range of up to 500 km (operational depth) for proposed solutions.
Operational capabilities in climate zones of interest to EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries ('one applies to all' usage).
Operational capabilities in GNSS denied areas, with accurate position determination (own position SEP below 10 meters, enemy firing positions SEP below 30 meters).
Robustness against jamming, spoofing, and Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP).
Low own energetic signature.
Ability to identify various projectiles (e.g., missiles, rockets, shells, loitering munitions) and, optionally, various UAVs by acoustic signatures.
Compatibility with relevant communication and information systems using relevant standards.
Ability to track detected targets (optional).

Operational Capacity

Assessment of the competence and experience of the applicants and their project teams.
Evaluation of human, technical, and other operational resources, or the measures proposed to obtain them by the time tasks begin.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance

Projects must comply with applicable EU, international, and national law.
Projects must comply with EU policy interests and priorities (e.g., environment, social, security, industrial, trade).
Projects must respect EU values and European Commission policy regarding reputational matters.

Ethical Standards

Projects must adhere to the highest ethical standards, including research integrity.
Proposals will undergo an ethics review for funding authorisation.
Projects may be subject to specific ethics rules, which become part of the Grant Agreement (e.g., ethics committee opinions/notifications/authorisations).

Security Requirements

Projects involving classified information must undergo security scrutiny.
Specific security rules detailed in a Security Aspects Letter (SAL) will be annexed to the Grant Agreement.
Projects under a specific security framework (Article 27(4) EDF Regulation) will be subject to that framework; classified foreground information (results) generated will be under the originatorship of the Member States involved.
If no specific security framework is set up, rules are governed by Commission Decision 2015/444 and its implementing rules.
Projects involving information classified TRES SECRET UE/EU TOP SECRET (or equivalent) cannot be funded.
Classified information (CONFIDENTIEL UE/EU CONFIDENTIAL or above, and RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED if required by national rules) may only be created/accessed on premises with Facility Security Clearance (FSC) from the competent National Security Authority (NSA), handled in accredited secured areas, and accessed/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 protected according to applicable rules.
Subcontracting tasks involving classified information requires prior written approval from the granting authority and is only allowed for entities established in an EU Member State or a non-EU country with a security agreement/administrative arrangement with the EU.
Disclosure of classified information to third parties requires prior written approval from the granting authority.
FSC may be required before grant signature; a grant agreement will not be signed until at least one beneficiary in the consortium has FSC.
Additional security recommendations (e.g., security advisory group, limited detail, fake scenarios, exclusion of classified information) may be added.
Beneficiaries must ensure projects are not subject to third-country/international organisation security requirements that could affect implementation or question the grant award.
The granting authority must be immediately notified of any potential security issues.

Project Exclusions

Projects concerning products and technologies whose use, development, or production is prohibited by international law are ineligible.
Projects concerning the development of lethal autonomous weapons without the possibility for meaningful human control over selection and engagement decisions when carrying out strikes against humans are ineligible (with exceptions for defensive early warning systems and countermeasures).
Projects where background or results would be subject to control or restriction by a non-associated third country or entity (directly or indirectly) and this impacts results, are ineligible.

Strategic Alignment

Projects should consider the results of projects supported by other EU funding programmes; complementarities must be described in the project proposals.
Projects must comply with EU policy interests and priorities (such as environment, social, security, industrial and trade policy, etc.).
Projects must also respect EU values and European Commission policy regarding reputational matters.

Grant Details