AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of small robots and drones – organisation of a technological challenge"
Organize a technological challenge for AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of robots and drones with a €7M budget.
This call funds the setup of a testing environment and a technological challenge for AI-driven tactical situational awareness using fleets of small robots and drones. It aims to enable objective comparison of different approaches through data collection, annotation, and evaluation. One proposal will be funded with an indicative budget of €7 million.
Likely relevant for
- AI research teams
- Robotics and drone technology developers
- Tactical situational awareness researchers
- Technology challenge organizers
- Data annotation and benchmarking experts
Project signals
What it funds
- Development of a testing environment for AI-based tactical situational awareness
- Organization of a technological challenge involving fleets of robots and drones
- Data collection during field tests and annotation for system validation
- Integration of knowledge including upstream and downstream research activities
Expected outcomes
- Standardized benchmarks for tactical situational awareness AI systems
- Objective evaluation criteria and plans for system performance
- Validated AI systems for tactical situational awareness using robot and drone swarms
Who can apply / participate
- Research teams
- Academic institutions
- Technology developers
- Consortia involving relevant stakeholders
- Check call document for consortium composition rules
- Eligible countries as described in call document section 6
- Refer to call document section 6 for detailed eligibility conditions
- Specific consortium size and composition
- Exact eligible countries list
Must check before shortlisting
- Eligibility criteria in call document section 6
- Specific consortium requirements if any
- Submission page limits and layout in call document section 5
Money
Indicative budget of EUR 7,000,000 for one proposal under this topic in the EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE call.
- Total indicative budget — 7000000EURFor one proposal to be funded
Application notes
- Single-stage submission model.
- Proposal page limits and layout described in call document section 5 and application form Part B.
- Eligibility and admissibility conditions in call document section 6.
- Financial and operational capacity requirements in call document section 7.
- Evaluation and award criteria in call document sections 8 and 9.
- Legal and financial setup described in call document section 10.
- Prepare proposal according to call document and application form templates.
- Submit proposal via Funding & Tenders Portal before deadline.
- Follow evaluation and award process as per call document.
- Check detailed eligibility and admissibility conditions before applying.
- Ensure compliance with page limits and layout requirements.
- Review all legal and financial conditions in call document.
Derived from official EU Funding portal source · updated 7 Jul 2026, 12:15 UTC. Use this as a shortlisting aid; the official call text remains authoritative.
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Official source text
Fine print from the EU source record. Expand when you need the original wording.
Topic description
Scope: The automatic analysis of tactical situations using fleets of robots, drones and AI is an important research topic that lacks standardised benchmarks and objective evaluation campaigns. This call topic aims to set up a testing environment and organise a technological challenge in which research teams will participate, supported by another topic (EDF-2024-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAP-STEP) and possibly other sources of funding. The testing environment should enable objective comparisons between different approaches. Data should be collected during field tests, annotated and shared to enable the validation of the system performances based on precise evaluation criteria and plans, to be provided as part of the call document. Targeted types of activities: Integrating knowledge, not excluding upstream and downstream activities eligible for research actions. Indicative budget: EUR 7 000 000 for this topic under the EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE call. Indicative number of proposals to be funded: One proposal is to be funded for this topic.
Conditions and documents
Conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
described in section 5 of the call document.
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.
2. Eligible Countries
described in section 6 of the call document.
3. Other Eligible Conditions
described in section 6 of the call document.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion
described in section 7 of the call document.
5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes
described section 8 of the call document and the Online Manual.
5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds
described in section 9 of the call document.
5c. Evaluation and award: 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 document and annexes:
Application form templates
Standard application form (EDF) — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System
Detailed budget table (EDF LS RA)
List of infrastructure, facilities, assets and resources (EDF)
Actual indirect cost methodology declaration (EDF)
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Additional documents:
EDF Programme Security Instruction (PSI)
Guidelines on FSTP implementation - WP2026
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Support information
For help related to this call, please contact DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS@ec.europa.eu 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 evaluation to reporting on your ongoing project. Valid for all 2021-2027 programmes.
Raw budget overview
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