The European Defence Agency (EDA) is seeking to establish a tight-knit European framework cooperation for security and defence research, together with the European Commission.
This new framework will provide an overarching structure for maximising synergy between defence and civilian security-related research activities on areas such as situational awareness, which incorporates sensing to command and control of networked assets.
European defence ministers have tasked the EDA with developing concrete proposals and will make decisions on a European framework cooperation as well as the content of a coordinated programme in November.
EDA chief executive Alexander Weis said that existing cooperation with the commission would be brought to a more intensive level.
“The aim is to synchronise research and allow for mutual use of results, as technologies are increasingly of a dual-use nature for military and civilian operators,” said Weis.
The EDA and the European Commission are already synergising their research in specific projects, such as software-defined radio and the insertion of unmanned aerial vehicles into regulated airspace.
