Deadline Date: September 29, 2026
The European Defence Fund is advancing a major initiative to assess the feasibility of establishing a comprehensive AI framework for defence applications to strengthen tactical intelligence, simulation capabilities, and military decision-making across the European Union.
The focus areas of this topic include assessing the feasibility of creating an AI framework for defence applications; providing military simulation capabilities; integrating historical datasets; developing a rich scenario and benchmark database; enabling access to doctrinal models and outputs from previously developed AI services; supporting war games and combat simulations; facilitating AI-enabled battlespace simulation; enhancing situational awareness and decision-making support; connecting to C2 systems and synthetic training environments; managing and contextualising data for AI learning; supporting instructor-led training systems; testing future human-machine interaction concepts; enabling validation of tactical intelligence solutions; developing a continuous, scalable, reusable and flexible AI development environment; and contributing to deep and digital technologies under the STEP Regulation.
With a total funding budget of EUR 110,000,000 and an indicative allocation of EUR 16,000,000 under the EDF-2026-RA call, this topic supports research actions where each proposal may request up to EUR 8,000,000. The initiative is positioned as a study and design action, while not excluding upstream and downstream research activities.
In a defence modelling and simulation context, artificial intelligence is expected to deliver tactical intelligence in near real time by strengthening operational awareness and providing advanced planning and decision-support tools. The envisioned AI framework is designed as a robust and adaptive system that enhances operational efficiency while ensuring interoperability, security, and responsiveness across persistent military environments such as training, exercises, and rehearsals.
The framework aims to unify tactical intelligence and decision-making capabilities by integrating command and control systems with synthetic training environments. It will collect, combine, clean, and contextualise historical and doctrinal data so that AI systems can learn, extract insights, and generate actionable guidance. By linking directly to end users, including C2 operators and training instructors, the framework will enable practical testing and validation of innovative tactical intelligence concepts within development and experimentation settings.
A key ambition of the topic is to address varying levels of AI maturity and standards across EU Member States and EDF associated countries by investigating how to create a scalable and reusable AI development environment. The objective is to ensure seamless integration of capabilities into a cost-effective and persistent military ecosystem.
Eligibility requirements specify that applicants must be legal entities established in eligible countries, including EU Member States and certain associated countries, with executive management structures located in those countries and without control by non-associated third countries unless appropriate guarantees are provided.
Through this initiative, the programme seeks to accelerate innovation in military modelling and simulation systems while reinforcing Europe’s strategic autonomy in advanced digital and defence technologies.
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