EDIDP 2020 programme: funding for 11 Leonardo research projects

20 July 2021

Leonardo has been awarded 11 research and development projects, which will receive European Union funds under the EDIDP (European Defence Industrial Development) 2020 programme. This programme is part of the European Defence Fund aimed at supporting the development of strategic defence autonomy for Europe and promoting military cooperation within the EU.

Of the 158.3 million euro assigned to the 26 projects approved by the European Commission, more than 50% will go to projects under the leadership of, or with the participation of, Leonardo (9), with the participation of Telespazio/e-GEOS (1), or under the leadership of Vitrociset (1).

The results obtained in EDIDP 2020 represent an important success for Leonardo, which is a leader in the two JEY-CUAS and INTEGRAL programmes (the latter through Vitrociset), following on from the positive results already achieved with the European EDIDP 2019 and PADR 2017, 2018 and 2019 programmes.

Leonardo is also coordinator of the ESSOR consortium and a member of the MALE RPAS consortium, directly awarded projects by which 137 million euro have been allocated for the 2019-2020 two-year period.

The issues addressed by the award-winning projects will cover a number of key sectors for Leonardo’s competitive positioning and for the development of the Member States supporting the initiatives. The topics are Counter-UAS, Space Situational Awareness and Early Warning against ballistic missile threats, Manned Uncrewed teaming system for Helicopters, Anti-Submarine Warfare, Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence, Long Range Indirect Fire Support System, Self-Protection System, Earth and Maritime Observations Satellite.

Leonardo is leader of the JEY-CUAS (Joint European sYstem for Countering Uncrewed Aerial Systems) project, by which it will coordinate 38 enterprises, research bodies and institutes of various sizes from 14 countries. Together the project will seek to develop technologies for new generation anti-drone systems with modular, flexible architecture capable of responding quickly to continually evolving threats, such as drones themselves, which are increasingly capable of surviving old-generation C-UAS systems.

Vitrociset, on the other hand, will lead the INTEGRAL project and a consortium composed of 23 members from seven countries. This advanced, flexible, modular Command and Control (C2) system processes and uses Space Situational Awareness (SSA) data on the basis of innovative AI/machine learning algorithms.

With these results achieved in the preparatory stages of the European Defence Fund (EDIDP 19-20 and PADR 17-19), Leonardo positions itself as the key player for the second phase in the European Defence Fund (EDF) for the years 2021-27, benefitting from allocation of 7,953 million euro at current prices (2,651 million euro for research and 5,302 million euro for development), with the addition of co-funding from Member States. The funds allocated to EDF 2021 amount to 1.2 billion euro, to finance 37 tenders.