Joint Call Defence 2026

The deadline to submit an application is set for December 11, 2026, at 11:00 AM (CET). 
 

Call purpose

The purpose of this joint call for projects is to develop and validate innovative defence solutions that could benefit the Luxembourgish army, international defence organisations (EU, NATO), and defence forces of allied nations. These solutions should aim at being integrated in EU or NATO defence development projects or programmes such as those carried out under the EDA, EDF or NATO frameworks.

 

Objectives

The joint call intends to provide a financial incentive to applicants who have an identified research or material/technology/product/solution and have to demonstrate its relevance and potential benefit for defence applications (the “project”). Technology transfer from civilian applications is acceptable, insofar as military applications still require a significant RDI effort with significant technical risks.

Applicants may apply for funding at any steps below, which can be considered as key R&D milestones (TRL 3-7) towards market access for defence applications. The project activities should be within TRL3-7.

- Research 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)
- 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)

- The design of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology as well as the definition of the technical specifications on which such a design has been developed, including any partial tests for risk reduction in an industrial or representative environment (design)

- The system prototyping of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology enabling the identification of prime contractors (system prototyping)

Projects shall comprise clear R&D milestones towards defence applications. Due to the specificities of the Defence sector and Luxembourg’s current positioning within the EU defence industry landscape, commercialising the product immediately after the call is not a requirement. However, identifying the adequate defence value chain and the potential prime contractor while aiming at becoming an acknowledged technology supplier in the EU/NATO defence value chain, will be essential.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to – either formally or informally – engage with international experts from the defence sector, e.g. suitable armed forces (personnel) or defence industry actors with an established track record. The aim is to ensure that proposed solutions reflect a realistic understanding of military operation, challenges and requirements. This engagement should be reflected in the application but neither needs to be validated, nor is it a formal eligibility requirement. Luxinnovation cannot provide introductions or guidance on this matter.


This Joint Call Defence aims at addressing challenges based on the Luxembourg defence priorities as defined in documents such as the:

- Luxembourg Defence Guideline 2035
- Luxembourg Cyber Defence Strategy
- Luxembourg Defence Space Strategy
- Luxembourg Defence Industry Strategy

Challenges targeted also reflect on the European Defence Agency (EDA)’s 2023 EU Capability Development Priorities and Overarching Strategic Research Agenda (OSRA) or OSRA taxonomy, among others.
The European Union Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS), the Strategic Compass for Security and Defence and its 2024 progress report, the EU Action Plan On Synergies between civil, defence and space industries as well as set the contextual framework of this call.
The call is looking to facilitate the integration of solutions developed in Luxembourg into the EU defence development programme such as the European Defence Fund, as described in the Indicative multiannual perspective 2024-2027.
Challenges also aim at contributing to the innovation and development carried out under NATO NCIA, NATO ACT, NATO NSPA, or the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, among others.

 

Call topic

In line with national, European and NATO defence priorities and strategies, proposals are welcome in, but not limited to, the following defence technological categories:

- Materials,
- Space,
- Cyber,
- Autonomous systems and AI
- Circularity in defence
 

See related links for more information:

Materials
For more information on materials in the defence domain, check out for instance the EDA CapTech Materials and Structures website or the NATO Defence-Critical Raw Materials List (2024) and NATO Defence-Critical Raw Materials List or NATO Supply Chain Security Roadmap.

Space
The EU Space Strategy for Security and Defence as well as the EDA CapTech Space bring more information on space in the defence domain.
Other strategies are for instance NATO Space Policy and NATO Approach to Space.

Cyber
For more information on cyber in the defence domain, the EDA CapTech Cyber provides additional information.

Autonomous systems and AI
Two recent publications of the European Defence Agency provide information on the application of these technologies in the defence domain: Whitepaper: Trustworthiness for Artificial Intelligence in Defence and EDA Action Plan on Autonomous Systems.
NATO also contributed with a NATO AI Strategy and Autonomy Implementation Plan.

 

General eligibility criteria and instruments of the joint call

Consortia are expected to include at least one eligible participating company and one FNR-eligible participating public research organization. In the consortium, the contribution of the private and public parties should be as close to equal as possible, whereas no party shall bear more than 70% of the total project cost.
Companies must fulfil the general eligibility criteria as set out in the RDI law [1] and the respective criteria of the specific State aid scheme they apply for as set out in the R&D schemes [2].
Research organizations must be eligible under article 3-(2) of the FNR statute and be registered at the FNR. 

The project must be in the field of industrial research and/or experimental development as defined in the RDI law, and in line with the call topic.

For research and development activities under the joint call for projects, public institutions should comply with the general principles set forth in the FNR Guidelines, such as the “Formal requirements to qualify as PI (principal investigator) of an FNR-funded project and/or as supervisor of an FNR-funded PhD candidate”, the “FNR Research Integrity Guidelines”, the “FNR Policy On Research Data Management”, as well as those included in the FNR BRIDGES Programme description.
The cost to cover PhD students and their research is not permissible for projects in this joint call.
A PI may submit a maximum of two proposals per call.
The FNR will fund the costs of the eligible public research organizations in Luxembourg, up to 750.000 € per project, covering project-specific costs (see FNR Financial Guidelines for details).

The Ministry of the Economy will co-finance costs borne by Luxembourg-eligible companies up to 1.000.000 € per project, using the R&D aid scheme [2].

The maximum co-financing rates for companies through collaboration are as follows:

Maximum aid intensities	Large company	Medium company	Small company
Experimental development	40%	50%	60%
Industrial research	65%	75%	80%

The project duration is a maximum of 36 months continuous period.

Upon justification regarding their liquidity needs, the Ministry of the Economy may give a 30% upfront payment to SMEs leading a project selected in this joint call. For public research organizations, the FNR financial regulations apply.

Eligible consortia are expected to be composed of national applicants.
However, under justified conditions, both subcontractors and/or self-funded partners from NATO Members, EU EEA/EFTA States, Ukraine, as well as the following NATO Indo-Pacific Partners: Australia, Japan, Republic of South Korea and New Zealand, could contribute to the project.
Self-funded partners are permitted to participate in the consortium.
Employees from companies and research organizations taking part in the project need to have nationalities of a NATO Member Country, from an EU EEA/EFTA Country, Ukraine or one of the following NATO Indo-Pacific Partners: Australia, Japan, Republic of South Korea and New Zealand.

Applicants will be required to:
- Provide a narrative CV for the Principal Investigator (PI) (for RPOs only)
- Provide a list of personnel that is going to work on the project (including their nationalities and work experience; full CV – Europass format) (for companies and RPOs)
- Sign a declaration of honour, ensuring that in case of the presence of non-NATO or EU EEA/EFTA nationalities, appropriate measures are put in place for safeguarding project related information

 

Evaluation criteria

Relevance
This criterion aims to evaluate the quality and the innovative character of the project through the following aspects:

Defence use case specifications
This criterion aims to evaluate the value of the project to the defence sector along the following aspects:

The project proposals will be evaluated in a balanced manner based on the following criteria and taking into account the general considerations formulated under the call topic and objectives:

- Alignment with the listed Luxembourg, European and NATO defence strategies and priorities;

- Suitability to address operational needs within the defence sector;

- Validity of the defence use case;

 

Quality and efficiency of the project plan
This criterion is intended to assess the quality and feasibility of the project work plan to ensure its success. The following aspects are considered:

- Coherence and effectiveness of the work plan, including appropriateness of the allocation of tasks and resources;

- Realistic timing taking into account - where applicable - the allocation of appropriate resources;

- Competences, experience and complementarity of the individual participants, as well as of the consortium and collaboration as a whole;

- Appropriate co- and pre-financing capacity of the participants;

- Level of ambition of the collaboration and commitment of the participants in the proposed program;

- Appropriateness of the measures to comply with applicable legislation and regulations;

- Credibility of the management structures and procedures, quality of the risk management plan and soundness of the risk mitigation plan.
 

Impact
This criterion is intended to assess the potential impacts and contributions of the project. The following aspects are considered:

- Broader impact with economic, environmental and societal added value of the proposed research and development project in line with national priorities;

- Strengthening of the competitiveness and growth of the companies involved by developing innovations;

- Effectiveness of the proposed measures to exploit and disseminate the results of the project;

- Contribution of the project to the advancement of knowledge and expertise of companies;

- Particular focus on R&D projects involving new innovations and processes rather than improvements to existing technologies and core business activities

Call process

The Submission and evaluation process will be composed of 1 phase.
 

Submission process 

Project application submission is open from 15 September 2026 9am to 11 December 2026 11am

Project application to be submitted by each project participant to the Ministry of the Economy (Myguichet platform) for companies and to FNR (FNR Grant Management System) for accredited research organizations. The templates of the application as well as the financial annexes to be appended by each partner to the aid application can be downloaded from the platform www.research-industry-collaboration.lu.

The project application shall provide information on:

- Detailed description of the research project;

- Detailed description of the defence/ military use-case the project addresses;

- Different activities of the project (work packages);

- Description of the technical challenges and implementation of the project;

- Description of the expected outcome and the economic impact;

- Milestones;

- Timeline;

- Resources;

- Description of costs;

- Collaboration agreement (draft ready for signature) including agreement on intellectual property;

- GDPR aspects: data flow and ownership, delegations to data processors.
 

Additional documents to be attached to the proposal

- Narrative CV for the Principal Investigator (PI) (for RPOs only)

- List of personnel that is going to work on the project (including their nationalities and work experience; full CV – Europass format) (for companies and RPOs)

- A signed declaration of honour, ensuring that in case of the presence of non-NATO or EU EEA/EFTA nationalities, appropriate measures are put in place for safeguarding project related information (by way of example only: a reasonable precaution is to avoid sharing offices, computers, or laboratories with individuals who do not meet eligibility requirements. Results or sensitive information should not be shared either).

Each consortia submitting an application should contact the Control office for exports, imports and transit (OCEIT) to get support if the technology developed falls under the dual-used importation and exportation rules.
While you do not need approval or opinion from the OCEIT prior to the application, it is strongly recommended that every retained project gets in touch with the OCEIT office regarding their JCD project, so they can inform you on the recommended approach and get the export license in good time.

Use of AI for proposal drafting
It is recommended to follow the FNR guidelines on the use of AI.
 

Eligibility check

It is recommended that, prior to filling out the application templates, applicant companies contact Luxinnovation to get support with regards to the eligibility check - including, but not limited to, financial viability and co-financing capacity.
 

Evaluation process

Project applications submitted will be reviewed by a thematic panel (“panel”) that will assess the project application from a scientific/technical and economic point of view. Based on the criteria set in the “Evaluation criteria and scoring system”, the panel will recommend projects for funding to the granting authorities.

A project can only be funded by a concurring decision of FNR, the Ministry of the Economy, and the Directorate of Defence of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade.

The results of the evaluation will be communicated in April 2027. Projects are expected to start in May 2027.

The contracts will be established separately between FNR and the public partners on the one hand, and between the Ministry of the Economy and the private partners on the other hand. These contracts will include IP clauses, which restrict the sale or licensing of intellectual property resulting from the work to prior authorisation by the Directorate of Defence of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade.

 

 

FAQ

Questions and answers related to the joint call can be found on the research-industry-collaboration platform (FAQ). Applicants are invited to consult the FAQ section regularly as there will be constant updates.
 

References:
[1] Law of 6 June 2025 on the promotion of research, development and innovation
[2] https://guichet.public.lu/en/entreprises/financement-aides/aides-recherche-developpement/rdi/aides-rdi.html