Promotion for dual-use technology from SMEs and startups: Eudis – EU Defense Innovation Scheme and the European Defense Fund (EVF)

 

In a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape, the European Union has recognized the need to significantly strengthen its defense industrial and technological basis (edtib). This strategic realignment is borne by a broad public opinion: 69% of European citizens support an increased ability of the EU to produce military equipment. In response to this, the European Commission launched far -reaching initiatives that are underpinned by significant financial resources. For the period from 2021 to 2027 alone, investments of 8 billion euros are planned for defense research and development. The focus of these efforts is the European Defense Fund (EVF), the main instrument of the Commission for the Promotion of Cooperative Projects in this sector.

 

A specific and highly relevant instrument was created within this fund: the EU defense innovation program (Eudis). Eudis is the EU's answer to the realization that true technological superiority and disruptive innovations often do not arise from the established structures of the large defense groups. Rather, it is often small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), agile start-ups and highly innovative players from the civilian sector – so-called “non-traditional” defense companies – that have groundbreaking technologies. Eudis was specifically designed in order to facilitate access to the defense market, to reduce existing entry barriers and to support them over the entire innovation cycle – from the first idea to development to market maturity and scaling.

 

For German medium-sized companies, in particular those with advanced dual-use technologies, Eudis is an unprecedented strategic opportunity. The program explicitly recognizes the enormous potential that lies in the transmission (spin-in) of civil technologies to the defense sector and actively promotes these synergies. The existence and the considerable financial resources of Eudis are therefore more than just a further source of support; They are a clear political signal. The EU Commission admits that traditional procurement and F&-cycles dominated by large corporations are often too slow and too closed to keep up with the pace of global technological change. For an SME, this means a fundamental re -evaluation of your own position: your own agility, niche expertise and the experience of fast -moving civilian markets are not deficits in the context of Eudis, but strategic core competencies. An applicant should therefore not try to act in the application process how an established defense group acts, but self -confidently focus on their own unique strengths: innovation speed, unconventional approaches and the proven ability to adapt civilian top technology quickly and efficiently for new fields of application.

 

National and regional contacts – who supports them?

 

The central point of contact: the national contact point of European defense funds. Further details on request.

 

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