D-STORM FSTP Call 1 - Loitering Munitions & UCAS: Use Cases, Scenarios and CONOPS

As a general principle, it is required that applicants use only the templates provided on the Funding & Tenders Portal. These templates have been designed in order to capture the information necessary to assess the eligibility of the proposal.

For development actions, as a derogation to this general principle, applicants may replace the following specific templates ‘harmonised capability declaration’ or ‘declaration on procurement intent and common specification’, with alternative forms such as a Letter of Intent (LoI) or a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), if deemed more appropriate. From an evaluation standpoint, no difference will be made between the available templates and the alternative forms as long as they contain the same level of detail and information and are signed by the competent authorities.

For research actions, none of these above-mentioned templates are mandatory (not part of the eligibility nor the award criteria).

In the “Tpl_Detailed Budget Table” under EDF-2025, when filling in the ‘Purchases’ section of the resource sheet(s) and running “Update content”, only the first line of the “travel and subsistence” is transferred to the Summary and Summary per Activity worksheets, while the added lines and the costs from ‘Equipment’ and ‘Other goods, works and services’ are ignored. What should I do?

Due to a technical issue, for cost category: “C.1Travel and subsistence” in the ‘resource’ sheets, please use only one row and do not use the function/button additional row. Adjust the number of trips, the costs and the description accordingly.

EDF Call texts may envisage that beneficiaries shall provide Financial Support to Third Party (FSTP), in accordance with the requirements set out in Article 207 of the EU Financial Regulation, the annual EDF Work Programme and the Call topic Description.

The FSTP is one of the cost categories eligible in EDF, if provided in the call conditions. The maximum amount of financial support that can be paid to a third party shall not exceed the amount indicated by the EDF Call text. FSTP should be issued in the form of lump sum grants and its funding rate is 100%, regardless of the specific EDF type of activity under which the FSTP takes place.

The Call conditions do not specify the activity to use when allocating the costs for FSTP. Unless otherwise provided for, the recipients of FSTP may be involved in any type of activity indicated as eligible for support from the Fund by the EDF Call text.

In EDF development actions, activities are funded at different funding rates. However, the amounts granted to the third parties should be 100% reimbursed to the consortium by the EU contribution.

To represent this situation in the Detailed Budget Table Annex, the consortium needs to calculate the estimates as follows.

• FSTP will be declared in activity Studies.
• the estimated amount provided to third parties will be declared, so the total corresponds to the EU requested contribution. So, the costs declared will be:

FSTP costs = Estimated amount provided to TP / funding rate

In the example, EUR 100 provided to TP corresponds to EUR 111.12 (EUR 100 / 90%)

The following example shows how to declare the costs of one FSTP contribution of the maximum EUR 60 000 allowed in the call.

FSTP costs = EUR 60 000 / 90% = EUR 66 666.67

Apart from the amounts provided to the third party, the consortium can declare costs related to the management of the FSTP (evaluation, implementation, communication…)

To facilitate the tracking of the activity, it is advised to create a specific Work Package (WP) for FSTP. In the Detailed Budget Table tab for Studies, the consortium encodes the effort related to this WP (and if necessary other costs categories). In the example effort is 1PM.

In the Summary per activity table, the costs related to the effort of this WP are included in the personnel costs (under the reporting methodology chosen by the beneficiary). In the example cost of the 1PM equals EUR 80 000.

In the table below, now we can see the following costs:

• Personnel costs for FSTP = EUR 80 000 + Indirect costs 25% = EUR 100 000
• FSTP amount provided to TP = EUR 66 666.67
• So, total costs EUR 166 666.67

And the EU contribution:

• For personnel costs EUR 90 000 (EUR 100 000 * 90%)
• For FSTP amount provided to third party EUR 60 000
• So total EU contribution EUR 150 000

The provision at submission stage of the Procurement intent/common technical specifications declaration and of the Harmonised capability requirements declaration is mandatory if and only if:

-For the requirement of “Procurement intent” and common technical specifications: it pertains to a development action covering prototyping, testing, qualification and/or certification

-For Harmonised capability requirements: it pertains to a development action covering design

However, the template for these declarations is not mandatory: it means that another template than the one provided by the Commission can be used (e.g. template from Member States like a Letter of Intent) under the condition that it contains the same information and the same level of details as the one requested in the Commission templates.

The Harmonised capability declaration confirms that the project proposal is based on Harmonised defence capability requirements jointly agreed by at least 2 Member States/Norway.

When it comes to the provision of the common technical specifications or the harmonised capability requirements mentioned in those declarations, you have the possibility either to provide them 1) at submission stage or 2) to provide them later during the action subject to the following conditions:

-Common technical specifications: if your development action also covers design, as a deliverable resulting from the design activity, before starting the prototyping, testing, qualification or certification activities

-Harmonised capability requirements: if your development action also covers studies, as a deliverable resulting from the studies activity, before the starting the design activity

We would suggest you get in touch with your National EDF Focal Point to guide you to the relevant national authority: defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu

According to the Call Document: “The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 60 000 (see Section 10) for a minimum period of 6 months.”

Due to a clerical error an older version of the Ownership and Control Declaration template was available in some EDF 2025 topics. However, there is no significant difference between the different versions for EDF, so both versions can be used.