The European Defence Fund (EDF) is the Commission’s initiative to support collaborative defence research and development, and to foster an innovative and competitive defence industrial base.

This topic focuses on system level integration and orchestration of 5G technologies for seamless interaction of private military and public 5G networks. Hence, the overall objective is to support the need for an always connected concept enabling military applications to roam securely through a mix of private and public networks. To achieve this, there is a need to study, develop and demonstrate how the military can exploit seamless and uninterrupted transfer of secure applications and services in a coverage area served by a mix of private military and public 5G networks, including BLoS (Beyond Line of Sight) through Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) communication systems integrated in 3GPP standard.

The specific challenge of this topic is to demonstrate robust and dynamic operational capabilities of 5G connectivity solutions matching the military needs for tactical command and control applications and services.

The solution should always be connected via a hybrid form of networks, while ensuring secure communications, using tactical networks, private military and public 5G networks and other federation solutions. The use of flexible reach back solutions such as 5G NTN is also necessary to reach shared centralised cloud services.

Within this context, secure integration of commercial and military hardware, software and services is a fundamental challenge that must be addressed on both a technological and a commercial level.

• Justice - Security
• Research, Technological Development and Innovation

• Central Government
• Legal Entities
• Other Beneficiaries
• Private Bodies
• Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
• State-owned Enterprises

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

• be legal entities (public or private bodies)
• be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
  • non-EU countries:
    • listed EEA countries (‘EDF associated countries’, see list of participating countries)
• have their executive management structure established in eligible countries
• must not be subject to control by a non-associated third country or non-associated third-country entity (unless they can provide guarantees – see Annex 2 – approved by the Member State or EDF associated country where they are established)

Consortium composition – Proposals must be submitted by:
minimum 3 independent applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.

Ministry of Defense

Address: 172-174 Strovolos Avenue, 2048 Strovolos, Nicosia
Telephone: 22 807500
Email: defence@mod.gov.cy
Website: https://mod.gov.cy/

Department of Research and Innovation
Telephones: 22 807755, 22 807754
Email: research.innovation@mod.gov.cy

For help related to this call, please contact: DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS@ec.europa.eu

• Funding&Tenders
• Call document