How to Apply to the European Defence Fund: A Startup and SME Guide (2026-27 Calls)

To apply to the European Defence Fund (EDF), you join or build a consortium of at least three eligible entities from three different EU Member States or EDF associated countries (two for the disruptive technology calls), register every partner on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, and submit one proposal against a published call topic before the deadline. The 2026 calls, worth about €1 billion under a work programme adopted on 17 December 2025, closed on 29 September 2026, with results due in March 2027. As of 22 October 2026 the Commission had not published a 2027 work programme.

This guide covers what the EDF pays for, who can apply, how the 2026 calls were built, the startup and SME instruments under the EU Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS), the portal steps, realistic timelines and where to find partners.

What the European Defence Fund pays for

The EDF is the EU's programme for collaborative defence research and development. The Commission's EDF page gives a budget of "nearly €7.3 billion" for 2021-2027 and, in the same sentence, splits it into €2.7 billion for research and €5.3 billion for capability development, which adds up to more than the headline. The page also says the Commission has committed almost €6.5 billion since the EDF Regulation entered into force in May 2021.

Money flows through two kinds of grant:

• Research actions fund new knowledge, studies and design work, mostly at lower technology readiness. They are funded at 100% of eligible costs.
• Development actions fund the road to a product: studies, design, system prototyping, testing, qualification and certification. They are co-funded, so the consortium or its governments pay the rest.

The 2026 work programme sets the rates by activity. Bonuses for development actions apply for PESCO projects (plus 10 points), for costs allocated to EU SMEs (the share going to non-cross-border SMEs, capped at 5 points, plus twice the share going to cross-border SMEs) and for mid-caps (listed at 10 points). Total bonuses cannot exceed 35 points, and indirect costs are a flat 25% of direct costs unless you use an accepted accounting method.

One exception matters for startups: in the 2026 disruptive technology call (EDF-2026-LS-DIS), activities that increase efficiency across a product's life cycle were funded at 100%.

Who is eligible

Eligibility has three layers, set out in the call document for the 2026 SME call and repeated across the programme.

Where you are. Every beneficiary must be a legal entity established in an EU Member State or an EDF associated country, with its executive management structure there too. Norway is associated. Ukraine signed its association agreement on 13 July 2026, and Ukrainian entities become eligible once it enters into force, according to notices on the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Who controls you. An entity must not be controlled by a non-associated third country or a non-associated third-country entity, unless it provides guarantees approved by the Member State where it is established. Each applicant files an ownership control declaration. For a venture-backed startup this is the clause to check first: a large non-EU investor with control rights can make you ineligible, or force you to negotiate guarantees with your ministry. Subcontractors involved in the action and associated partners must meet the same establishment and control conditions.

How the consortium is built. The default is at least three eligible entities from three different Member States or associated countries. The disruptive technology calls accept two entities from two countries, provided they do not control each other and are not controlled by the same entity, per the work programme. Natural persons are not eligible, except sole traders.

Development actions add conditions. Applicants must show who pays the share the EDF does not cover, through signed co-financing declarations. Design work must rest on capability requirements agreed by at least two Member States or associated countries, and prototyping, testing, qualification or certification needs at least two of them to state an intent to procure or use the result. In Austria, for example, the FFG notes that development projects need a letter of intent from the Federal Ministry of Defence.

The 2026 calls and deadlines

The 2026 work programme provides €1,005,978,500, of which 32.79% is for research and 67.21% for development. It ran 10 competitive calls. The Commission's EDF page counts 31 call topics, while Austria's FFG counts 28, so the number depends on how direct awards and framework topics are counted. About half went to major capabilities, according to the Commission, such as €125 million for a future main battle tank and €90 million for medium-size semi-autonomous surface vessels.

The calls opened on 11 February 2026 (the SME research and disruptive technology topics on 15 April) and closed on 29 September 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time, according to the portal. For startups, the relevant calls were these:

Budgets and caps come from the work programme; proposal counts are from closing notices on the portal, for example on the SMERO topic. The non-thematic calls require at least technology readiness level 4 and run for 12 to 36 months (SMERO) or 12 to 24 months (LS-DIS). On these numbers the SME research call was the most crowded: 279 proposals for €35 million.

EUDIS: the startup and SME instruments

EUDIS is the umbrella for the EDF's support to SMEs, startups and newcomers. Its website puts the 2026 envelope at €231 million, or 23% of the EDF's 2026 budget. Its tracks include:

• Non-thematic SME calls and disruptive technology calls: the calls in the table above.
• Cascade funding: EDF projects can pass up to 5% of their requested EU contribution to third parties, prioritising SMEs and startups, under the work programme. One open example on the EDF page: the BattleVerse project seeks up to 20 SMEs and startups, with applications closing on 16 November 2026.
• Business accelerator: two cohorts a year of at least 20 companies each, with coaching, boot camps and non-dilutive seed vouchers. EUDIS says its spring and autumn 2026 cohorts support up to 40 startups and scale-ups.
• Business coaching of up to 15 days for SME beneficiaries of EDF grants.
• Hackathons, technological challenges and matchmaking, plus the Defence Equity Facility, run by the European Investment Fund, which backs private funds investing in defence and dual-use companies.

For a first-time applicant, a sensible path is a cascade-funding call or the accelerator, then a role as partner in an SME call consortium, before leading a thematic proposal.

How to apply on the Funding & Tenders Portal

1. Pick a topic. Read the work programme and the call topic descriptions on the 2026 work programme page, including amendment 1 of 30 April 2026.
2. Check eligibility early: establishment, control, and for SME topics your SME self-assessment, which must be based on accounts not older than 31 December 2024 for the 2026 calls.
3. Register each partner in the Participant Register to get a PIC, appoint a legal entity appointed representative (LEAR), and complete validation by the Central Validation Service.
4. Prepare the proposal. Part A is the administrative form in the submission system. Part B is the technical narrative, with page limits. Annexes include the detailed budget table, participant information, ownership control declarations and, for development actions, co-financing, capability requirement and procurement intent declarations.
5. Protect sensitive content. The Commission offers an encryption service for Part B and annexes.
6. Submit before 17:00 Brussels time on the deadline day. The call document requires proposals to be submitted before the deadline.

Typical timelines

Expect about a year from deadline to signed grant. For the 2025 calls, the Commission reported 410 proposals on 20 October 2025 and announced 57 winners on 15 April 2026, worth €1.07 billion, aiming to sign grants before the end of 2026. Its results factsheet rounds the same award to €1 billion. By our arithmetic, about 14% of 2025 proposals were funded. SMEs made up over 38% of participants and received more than 21% of funding.

The 2026 dates are from the SME call document. On the 2027 cycle, the indicative multiannual perspective of 17 December 2025 lists candidate topics but commits to nothing. If the Commission follows its 2026 timing, a 2027 work programme would appear around the turn of the year; that is our expectation, not an announcement.

Where to find partners

Every Member State and Norway nominates an EDF National Focal Point. They advise on Commission and national procedures, run info days and, in some countries, help with partner search. Start there, because your ministry of defence will also be the body that signs co-financing and procurement intent letters for development actions.

Other routes are the partner search function on the portal, EUDIS matchmaking events, and existing EDF consortia that need subcontractors or cascade-funding recipients. For a list of European companies by sector, our defence tech directory covers fields such as counter-drone, space and ISR and cyber. If NATO is a better fit, see our guide to applying to NATO DIANA, and for equity rather than grants, the NATO Innovation Fund portfolio.