European Defence FundEDF Lump Sum Grants

AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of small robots and drones – organisation of a technological challenge"

Deadline29 September 2026
Total budget€30M
Opens11 February 2026
Deadline modelsingle-stage
Call IDEDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE

What this call funds

Scope

The automatic analysis of tactical situations using fleets of robots, drones and AI is an important research topic that lacks standardised benchmarks and objective evaluation campaigns.

This call topic aims to set up a testing environment and organise a technological challenge in which research teams will participate, supported by another topic (EDF-2024-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAP-STEP) and possibly other sources of funding. The testing environment should enable objective comparisons between different approaches. Data should be collected during field tests, annotated and shared to enable the validation of the system performances based on precise evaluation criteria and plans, to be provided as part of the call document.

Targeted types of activities: Integrating knowledge, not excluding upstream and downstream activities eligible for research actions.

Indicative budget: EUR 7 000 000 for this topic under the EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE call.

Indicative number of proposals to be funded: One proposal is to 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 LS RA)

Participant information (EDF)

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

Actual indirect cost methodology declaration (EDF) 

Ownership control declaration 

Ownership control guarantee

PRS declaration (EDF) 

Model Grant Agreements (MGA)

EDF, ASAP and EDIRPA Lump Sum 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