Following approval by the EU Member States in July, 14 military projects on SESAR deployment will receive a total of € 53.5 million in EU funding under the 2015’s call for proposals of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) published by the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA-call). This represents around 10% of total funds awarded to the related SESAR clusters. In its role of military coordinator for SESAR deployment, the European Defence Agency (EDA) had supported Member States to identify and prepare bids for this call.
In preparation of the INEA-call, around 100 projects were identified in close cooperation with Member States, NATO and Eurocontrol. Early 2016 over 20 key military projects were submitted to INEA through the EDA ranging from ground systems, to air platforms and also specific studies. This is the first time, the military benefits of financial instruments previously not at reach.
The next stage for the funded stakeholders, including the military, will be the formalisation of this award decision, turning it into the Specific Grant Agreements required under the SESAR Framework Partnership Agreement in order to have the projects coordinated by the SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM) and to receive the awarded funding through SDM.
Building on the lessons learned from the 2015 call and the priorities identified in the Deployment Programme 2016, EDA is already working with Member States and other stakeholders, to encourage and facilitate increased participation in the 2016 CEF Transport INEA Call on the basis of high quality military projects. Early identification of relevant candidate projects is essential in this perspective.
More information: