Non-thematic actions targeting disruptive technologies for defence

It is very important that the correct organisation status is reflected in the Part A of the proposal. DG DEFIS uses it for verifying eligibility participants at the time of the proposal submission, for example whether the SME self-assessment has been conducted as required by the SME calls.

If you have made some changes in your PIC after you have created a proposal, you will have to manually update the PIC at step "participants" to refresh data in your proposal.

To proceed, we invite you to:

1. Save and exit part A (if you are editing it at the moment)

2. Click on "Back to participants list", below the annexes

3. In the organization's section concerned, click on "change organization"

4. Confirm that you want to proceed - Enter another PIC (any other PIC will work) and click on "Use"

5. Click on "Save" at the bottom of the page

6. Click again on "Change organization" and enter back the correct PIC - Click on "Use"

7. Click on "Save and go to next step" at the bottom of the page

Please go back in Part A, section participants, to save and validate new data.

You will need to submit again your proposal to take those changes into consideration at the evaluation.

If after following these steps the status still appears in the part A, please repeat this procedure by adding this extra step between steps 5 and 6:

• Enter the Part A, section participants, validate and click on the "save and Exit" button (It should show the data of the other organisation).

Yes, it is possible to participate in the same call in more than one proposals, as long as the proposals are different.

To avoid this situation you need to make sure that you have activated the “optimise for compatibility” option in Excel. This might be needed even if you are not using Office 365.

You will need to restart filling in the form from the empty template.

As indicated in the call document, Part B and annexes need to be submitted, via the Funding & Tenders Portal submission service, as a single password-protected zip file, using AES-256 encryption.

The encrypted zip file may itself contain encrypted annexes using the same encryption method, for sensitivity reasons. This may be the case, for example, for entity-specific annexes like the Actual Indirect Cost Methodology Declaration or Ownership Control Declaration).

All corresponding passwords (together with the proposal ID and the name of the zip file(s)) need to be sent to the Commission by their respective originator, before the proposal submission deadline, through the following EUSurvey ec.europa.eu or at the following email address: DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS-PWD@ec.europa.eu.

Alternatively, you can encrypt your Part B and Annexes through the DG DEFIS DEFEND-S SNC encrypt file service:

1. Connect and login to DEFEND-S with your EU Login at defend-s-edf.defis.service.ec.europa.eu

2. On landing page select [Encryption] module

3. Upload your local already zipped but not yet encrypted file including the Part B and Annexes for encryption

4. DEFEND-S will send you an email notification when the encrypted file will be available for download. The encrypted file will be available for download only for maximum 24 hours

5. Download the encrypted file and submit it through the Electronic Submission System

6. There is no need to separately send the password to DG DEFIS

Please note that your file has not been submitted for evaluation through the DEFEND-S encryption. You still need to download the file and upload it through the Submission system at the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.

Proposal should start from the Cover page (template page 3.). The Annexes in EDF are submitted on a separate documents, and the history of changes can be deleted. The sections 3-7 of the template that are not applicable for Lump Sum Grants for Non-thematic Disruptive Actions can be deleted. No other parts, such as declarations should be deleted. The Part B beyond 50 pages will be deleted from the proposal, and may affect negatively the evaluation and/or eligibility of the proposal.

No. Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register — before submitting the proposal. They will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation) before grant signature only. At that stage for the validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin.

When assessing the control of a legal entity participating in EDF, the Guidance on participation in EU calls with ownership and control restrictionsPDF apply. In the case of a natural person controlling a legal entity, if the natural person has dual nationality (EU and Non-EU) she/he will be considered as EU national.

When submitting a proposal, the participating entities (Beneficiaries, Affiliated entities, Subcontractors involved in the action, and associated partners) must fill in the new ownership control declaration template (version 2026). If the entity is subject to non-Eu control, by a non-Eu country, non-EU country entity or non-EU country national, the entity must tick the box “Declaration- Non-EU Controlled”. The entity needs to indicate which is/are the non-EU country(ies) of control. If it is Norway, the entity must tick in the template the box “YES” in the question “are the non-EU country eligible country for participation in the call”. Should this be the case, the entity is deemed to be eligible, and it does not need to provide the security guarantee.

If the entity has participated in other EU funded projects, and it has been the object of a ownership control assessment, and its control situation has not changed since that assessment, the entity can tick as well the box “declaration- no change”.