Innovation Europe > News > Innovation EU Vol2-1 > European Defence Agency - Meeting the challenges

Defence has been a driving force of innovation, not only in several technology areas, but in creating new ways of promoting innovation itself. The European Defence Agency, established by the Council of European Union (EU) on 12 July 2004, has the mission to improve Europe’s military capabilities, needed for the Common Security and Defence Policy. One of the key functional areas of the European Defence Agency is to promote collaborative defence research and technology (R&T) between its participating member states (pMS).

Collaboration is the key to success

Collaboration between the European Defence Agency shareholders, the pMS, materialises in strategies, policies, initiatives, common staff targets and requirements, studies, ad-hoc programmes and projects.

In the R&T area, these activities bring together pMS experts, their governmental laboratories, key industries, academia, but also small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) interested in defence R&T.

However, planning and organising investments in defence innovation through European collaborative R&T programmes and projects, while building new defence capabilities and strengthening the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base, is a challenging task even for dedicated organisations and experts. Identifying subjects of common interest, agreeing on work shares and specific conditions for collaboration may require more management efforts and longer lead times in comparison with national defence R&T programmes and projects.

However, for a number of technology areas, the establishment of innovative solutions requires the involvement of fresh or complementary knowledge. Co-operation partners from other pMS may bring in this knowledge, and academia and SMEs are regarded as one of the main resources of innovative ideas. Most of all, collaborative R&T is worth the extra efforts as it prevents duplication of national investments and leads to economies of scale.

But how can European collaborative R&T programmes and projects be established if defence R&T is subject to restrictions in the majority of pMS? How can the varying interests and capacities of key industries, national laboratories, academia and SMEs be harmonised in collaborative projects?

European defence collaboration

To tackle the above-mentioned challenges, European Defence Agencyhas established a general framework for European collaborative R&T programmes and projects and seeks continuously to improve those. Category B Ad Hoc projects or programmes, based on a bottom-up approach, comprise a cluster of R&T activities where one or more pMS (in most cases two to six pMS) identify one relatively narrow R&T topic and set up the specific conditions for co-operation.

The cumulated budget of newly contracted European Defence Agency Category B Ad Hoc projects and programmes is between e55-131m annually. The total number of ongoing Category B Ad Hoc projects or programmes is 40-50, but at least the same number of new proposals is under discussion in the 12 specific technology groups. European Defence Agency has launched two so-called Category A programmes up to the present. Category A programmes encompass several projects.

The number of contributing member states is higher. Contracts are awarded on the basis of competition, for which consortia have to be formed between at least two R&T industries, institutions, laboratories or universities in different European countries. Thus, the JIP-formula is increasing European R&T networking. The first Joint Investment Programme on Force Protection (JIP-FP), launched in 2006, focuses on technologies able to increase significantly the protection of EU defence forces against threats in urban environment.

The second Joint Investment Programme on Innovative Concepts and Emerging Technologies (JIP-ICET) was launched in 2008 for research into the emerging technologies that might have a disruptive effect on the battlefield. The budget of JIP-FP is e54.93m contributed by 20 European countries, the budget of JIP-ICET is e15.58m contributed by 11 pMS.

Promoting the participation of all stakeholders

Before the establishment of European Defence Agency, the key defence industries and laboratories of Ministries of Defence were the main contributors to European collaborative R&T programmes and projects. This situation has not changed considerably with Cat B projects and programmes. Identifying technical objectives and requirements, specifying scope of work, agreeing on budget and co-operation conditions for such projects and programmes requires at least 1.5-2 years and a number of meetings and workshops to be attended in the preparation phase.

Furthermore, the need for co-funding, with a contribution of up to 50% from non-government partners, has for a long time characterised Category B projects and programmes. These are less demanding for large key defence industrial companies, but SMEs and academia have to deploy their limited resources very effectively in order to participate in such projects. At the same time SMEs and academia are less capable of bearing the high costs and risks of defence R&T projects. For those reasons their investment in the preparation of such projects and programmes will be limited, especially when contracts cannot be guaranteed.

Category A JIP programmes offer a new way of European defence R&T collaboration. Initial conditions of these programmes are established in advance, preparation and management activities are centralised, and in addition several rules support the involvement of new pMS, academia and SMEs.

In both JIP programmes the awarded projects clearly demonstrate these advantages because academia and SMEs are present in almost all. No doubt, JIP programmes are excellent tools to involve a wide range of stakeholders concerned in defence R&T, but the number of JIP programmes that can be launched is limited. It is evident that new conditions should be developed to merge the benefits of the two types of European collaborative R&T programmes and projects.

Innovation and technology partnership

The Innovation and Technology Partnership (ITP) on the Studies for Integrated Multifunction Compact Lightweight Airborne Radars and Systems (SIMCLAIRS) is the first European Defence Agency Category B project for which this mechanism is used. The ambitious four-year project, launched in April 2009 with a budget of E25m, aims at developing key technology components for multifunction radiofrequency systems, combining multi-band radar, synthetic aperture radar and ground-moving target indicator, electronics support measures and communications equipment in a compact, lightweight and low-power consumption payload for tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS).

ITP opens the door to all European R&T entities to participate in an European Defence Agency Category B project, although the project itself is funded only by three European Defence Agency pMS: France, Sweden and the UK. This new way of European Defence R&T co-operation combines the advantages of Category B and A joint investments projects and programmes in order to capture and exploit novel technologies from SMEs and academia, and provide the free flow of technology and information across national boundaries between all European Defence Agency pMS.

ITP is operated and administered by an industrial consortium composed of four European key industries: Thales Systèmes Aéroportés from France; SAAB AB Publ from Sweden; SELEX Galileo Ltd and Thales UK Ltd from the UK. The joint government-industry-funded core programme is being carried out by the industrial consortium itself. The fully government-funded competed programme is open to all European industries, laboratories, SMEs and academia. The competed programme is implemented through two successive calls.

The majority of the 12 proposals, selected in the first call, were made by universities and SMEs, illustrating that through the competed programme, the project achieves its technical objectives on the highest level possible in Europe, and the ITP structure provides the opportunity to a wide range of R&T entities in all pMS to participate in international defence R&T collaboration without financial contribution. In addition to this remarkable advantage the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base will also be strengthened, while new partners may learn a lot from the collaboration with industries experienced in cross-border international defence R&T co-operation.

Attila SIMON, European Defence Agency
Technical Project Officer R&T
For more information visit: www.eda.europa.eu