European Defence FundEDF Development Actions

Enhanced medium-size semi-autonomous surface vessels

Deadline29 September 2026
Total budget€422M
Opens11 February 2026
Deadline modelsingle-stage
Call IDEDF-2026-DA

What this call funds

Scope

The aim of this topic is to follow up and complement previous activities already supported by the EDF in the field of medium-size semi-autonomous surface vessels, with a view to developing a universal fast-moving platform for the specific conditions of the littoral environment, providing enhanced coastal defence capabilities based on different mission modules, but also adaptable to other future naval warfare missions.

In particular, this topic aims to review concepts and designs developed and implemented following the EDF call topic EDF-2022-DA-NAVAL-MSAS, while enabling new design, prototyping, testing and qualification activities concerning the platform and its autonomy package, and addressing information/data management and specific mission modules.

This topic contributes to the STEP objectives as defined in the STEP Regulation in the target investment area of defence technologies.

Targeted types of activities: Studies, design, system prototyping, testing and qualification, not excluding upstream and downstream activities eligible for development actions.

Indicative budget: EUR 90 000 000 for this topic under the EDF-2026-DA call.

Indicative number of proposals to be funded: One proposal is to be funded for this topic. However, depending on the quality of the proposals submitted and the budget available, more than one proposal may ultimately be funded for this topic.

Eligibility & conditions+

Conditions

1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout

described in section 5 of the call document.

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

2. Eligible Countries

described in section 6 of the call document.

3. Other Eligible Conditions

described in section 6 of the call document.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion

described in section 7 of the call document.

5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes

described section 8 of the call document and the Online Manual.

5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds

described in section 9 of the call document.

5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement

described in section 4 of the call document.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants

described in section 10 of the call document.

Call document and annexes:

Call document

Application form templates

Standard application form (EDF) — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System

Detailed budget table (EDF DA)

Participant information (EDF)

List of infrastructure, facilities, assets and resources (EDF)

Cofinancing declaration (EDF DA, DA LS AND ASAP) 

Actual indirect cost methodology declaration (EDF) 

Harmonised capability declaration (EDF DA AND DA LS) 

Declaration on procurement intent and common specifications (EDF DA AND DA LS) 

Ownership control declaration 

Ownership control guarantee

PRS declaration (EDF) 

Model Grant Agreements (MGA)

EDF, ASAP and EDIRPA MGA 

Additional documents:

EDF Annual Work Programme

EDF Regulation 2021/697

EDF Programme Security Instruction (PSI)

Guidelines on FSTP implementation - WP2026

EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509

Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment

EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement

Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual

Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions

Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

Source: EU Funding & Tenders Portal · synced 2026-06-30