Non-thematic research actions by SMEs and research organisations
EDF Lump Sum Grants
Basic Information
- Identifier
- EDF-2022-LS-RA-SMERO-NT
- Programme
- Research actions (dedicated to SMEs and research organisations) through lump sum grants following the call for proposals
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- June 21, 2022
- Deadline
- November 24, 2022
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €17,600,000
- Min Grant Amount
- –
- Max Grant Amount
- –
- Expected Number of Grants
- –
- Keywords
- EDF-2022-LS-RA-SMERO-NTEDF-2022-LS-RA-SMERO
Description
- Innovative and cost-effective solutions for defence applications.
- Ground-breaking or novel concepts and approaches, new promising future technological improvements or the application of technologies or concepts previously not applied in the defence sector.
- Enhanced innovation capacity across Europe by involvement of SMEs that can make a difference in the future.
- Potential for future market creation for SMEs, especially by facilitating access of SMEs to defence markets and supply chains.
- Contribution to the development of European research and technology ecosystems and to the strengthening of European defence supply chains.
This call encourages the driving role of innovative SMEs in bringing forward innovation defence research, possibly by adapting technologies from civil applications or addressing hybrid warfare.
Successful SME beneficiaries may be offered Business Coaching, to reduce the time of bringing the results to the next phase, e.g., development.
Scope:Scope and types of activities
Scope
The proposals must address innovative technologies and solutions for defence, including those that can improve readiness, deployability, reliability, safety and sustainability of forces in defence tasks and missions, for example in terms of operations, equipment, infrastructure, energy solutions, surveillance systems or digital solutions.
The proposals can address any subject of interest for defence.
Types of activities
The following types of activities are eligible for this topic:
| Types of activities (art 10(3) EDF Regulation) | Eligible? | |
| (a) | Activities that aim to create, underpin and improve knowledge, products and technologies, including disruptive technologies, which can achieve significant effects in the area of defence (generating knowledge) | Yes |
| (b) | Activities that aim to increase interoperability and resilience, including secured production and exchange of data, to master critical defence technologies, to strengthen the security of supply or to enable the effective exploitation of results for defence products and technologies (integrating knowledge) | Yes |
| (c) | Studies, such as feasibility studies to explore the feasibility of new or upgraded products, technologies, processes, services and solutions | Yes |
| (d) | Design of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology as well as the definition of the technical specifications on which such design has been developed, including partial tests for risk reduction in an industrial or representative environment | Yes |
| (e) | System prototyping of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology | No |
| (f) | Testing of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology | No |
| (g) | Qualification of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology | No |
| (h) | Certification of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology | No |
| (i) | Development of technologies or assets increasing efficiency across the life cycle of defence products and technologies | No |
However, the proposals must not cover studies only.
The proposals must describe a clear work breakdown structure and link the proposed tasks to eligible activities.
Proposals should include clear descriptions of the proposed criteria to assess work package completion.
Functional requirements
This call is open to any technological research for defence. Proposals should describe the targeted functionalities and the foreseen means to measure progress toward the achievements of these functionalities.
Eligibility & Conditions
Conditions
1. Admissibility conditions: described in section 5 of the call document
Proposal page limits and layout: described in section 5 of the call document. Application Forms are available in the Submission System
2. Eligible countries: described in section 6 of the call document
3. Other eligibility conditions: described in section 6 of the call document
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in section 7 of the call document
Submission and evaluation processes: described in section 8 of the call document and in the Online Manual
Award criteria, scoring and thresholds: described in section 9 of the call document
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 documents:
Standard application form (EDF) — call-specific application forms will be available in the Submission System at the opening of the call.
Detailed Budget Table (EDF-LS-RA) — the form will be available in the Submission System at the opening of the call.
Additional documents:
EDF Work Programme 2022 – Part 2
EU Financial Regulation 2018/1046
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Support & Resources
For help related to this call, please contact: [email protected]
Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – Submission of proposals.
IT Helpdesk – Contact the IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc.
Online Manual – Step-by-step online guide through the Portal processes from proposal preparation and submission to reporting on your on-going project. Valid for all 2021-2027 programmes.
Latest Updates
The call EDF-2025-LS-RA-SMERO closed at 17.00 on 16 October 2025. 149 proposals were submitted for evaluation.
New versions of detailed budget table for EDF LS RA.
Correction of formulas for participation of SMEs and mid-caps in the sheet Info Award criterion 5 (see tab “history of changes” in the file for more details).
Update of the specific topic conditions regarding the limit of subcontracting and the participation of Research organisations to align with Section 10.
The link to documents hyperlinks to documents in Topic conditions and documents have been updated.