Renewed EU defence research cooperation

The European Defence Agency (EDA) and the European Commission will cooperate in the field of research. The European Framework Cooperation (EFC) was signed yesterday. Together with situational awareness and unmanned air systems, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) protection will be a key area of this inter-organisational cooperation. “We agreed that the organisations will provide each other relevant project information relating to the preparation of calls for proposals or invitations to tender, the evaluation of these proposals or tenders, as well as the implementation of research activities,” said Adam Sowa, EDA Deputy Chief Executive. He added that the EFC was also paving the way for future cooperation under Horizon 2020, an EU environmental research initiative: “I believe that it would be beneficial for both civil and military when we could co-finance the dual-use technologies that both constituencies need for their applications.”

Strengthening the EU’s drive on defence and security technologies will be discussed by the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier and EDA Chief Executive Claude-France Arnould, at the SDA’s SecDef Conference on November 7th 2011 in Brussels.