01 Proposal · Page Limit and Layout Proposals (Part B) are limited to a maximum of 50 pages, combining unclassified and classified parts if any. The application must be readable, accessible and printable. Evaluators will not consider any additional pages beyond the 50-page limit. Excess pages will be disregarded.
02 Eligible · Countries for Participation Applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be a SEAP (Structure for European Armament Programme) or a group of at least 4 EU Member States and EDIP associated countries which have submitted a proposal for an EDPCI (European Defence Project of Common Interest) as part of the call for expression of interest launched by the Commission in February 2026 but whose project was not identified as an EDPCI in Decision COM(2026)358. Only participants established in EU Member States or EDIP associated countries/Ukraine with their executive management structure in one of these countries may participate as beneficiaries and affiliated entities. Associated partners may participate exceptionally under certain conditions if not established in eligible countries.
03 Participant · Eligibility Conditions Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must be legal entities (public or private bodies) established in eligible countries. Natural persons are not eligible except self-employed persons (sole traders). International organisations are not eligible. Entities must not be subject to EU restrictive measures or EU conditionality measures. Entities subject to bankruptcy, winding up, or similar procedures are not eligible. Entities in breach of social security or tax obligations are not eligible. All participants must be registered in the Participant Register before proposal submission and validated by the Central Validation Service. Entities without legal personality may exceptionally participate if their representatives can undertake legal obligations and offer equivalent guarantees for EU financial interests protection.
04 Financial · and Operational Capacity Applicants must have stable and sufficient resources to successfully implement the projects and contribute their share. Financial capacity will be checked on the basis of documents requested during grant preparation (profit and loss account, balance sheet, business plan, audit report from approved external auditor certifying accounts for last closed financial year). Analysis is based on neutral financial indicators (liquidity, financial autonomy, solvency, profitability) and other aspects such as dependency on EU funding, deficit and revenue in previous years. Operational capacity requires applicants to have know-how, qualifications and resources to successfully implement projects, including sufficient experience in projects of comparable size and nature. This is assessed based on competence and experience of applicants and project teams, including operational resources (human, technical and other). Public bodies, Member State organisations and international organisations are exempted from operational capacity check.
05 Exclusion · Criteria for Participants Applicants subject to an EU exclusion decision or in any of the following situations are barred from receiving EU funding: bankruptcy, winding up, affairs administered by courts, arrangement with creditors, suspended business activities or similar procedures; breach of social security or tax obligations; guilty of grave professional misconduct; committed fraud, corruption, links to criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism-related crimes, child labour or human trafficking; shown significant deficiencies in complying with main obligations under EU procurement contracts, grant agreements, prizes or expert contracts; created under different jurisdiction with intent to circumvent fiscal, social or other legal obligations; intentionally resisted investigation, check or audit by EU authorising officer, OLAF, EPPO or European Court of Auditors. Additionally, applicants will be rejected if they misrepresented information required for participation or failed to supply that information, or if they were previously involved in call preparation causing distortion of competition.
06 Submission · and Evaluation Process Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System before the call deadline (15 December 2026, 17:00 CET). Paper submissions are not possible. Proposals follow a standard one-stage submission and one-step evaluation procedure. After submission, proposals are first checked for admissibility and eligibility. Admissible and eligible proposals are then evaluated by an independent evaluation committee against operational capacity and award criteria, and ranked according to their scores. The evaluation committee assesses proposals through individual evaluation, consensus group discussion, and panel review. Proposals are evaluated on their own merit as submitted. Evaluation results are communicated to participants with evaluation summary reports. Proposals passing the overall threshold will be considered for funding within available budget limits.
07 Award · Criteria and Scoring Methodology Proposals are evaluated against three award criteria: (1) Objectives (maximum 5 points, weighting 2), (2) Expected results (maximum 5 points, weighting 2), and (3) Implementation (maximum 5 points, weighting 3). Each criterion is scored from 0 to 5 using a scale: 0 = fails to address or cannot be assessed; 1 = poor with serious weaknesses; 2 = fair with significant weaknesses; 3 = good with some shortcomings; 4 = very good with minor shortcomings; 5 = excellent addressing all aspects. Half-points are allowed. Maximum total points: 35. There is no minimum pass score for individual criteria. Overall threshold: 23 points. Proposals passing the overall threshold will be considered for funding within available budget limits. Implementation criterion assesses work plan and work packages, effectiveness and practicality of work plan structure, usefulness and comprehensiveness of milestones and deliverables, project and quality of management, appropriateness of management structures and procedures (risk, financial, project management), and appropriateness of task and resource allocation between consortium members.
08 Evaluation · Timeline and Grant Agreement Signature Call opening: 15 October 2026. Deadline for submission: 15 December 2026, 17:00 CET (Brussels). Evaluation period: December 2026 to March 2027. Information on evaluation results: March 2027. Grant Agreement signature: April-June 2027. After evaluation, successful proposals are invited for grant preparation where the Grant Agreement is prepared with the EU Project Officer. Grant preparation normally takes approximately 3 months from the GAP invitation letter. The project starting date is normally after grant signature, though retroactive starting dates can be granted exceptionally for duly justified reasons back to 5 March 2024.
09 Legal · and Financial Grant Setup The grant is an action grant in the form of a lump sum grant for completion of work packages. The grant will reimburse a fixed amount based on financing not linked to costs. The amount is fixed by the granting authority based on the number of participating EU Member States and EDIP associated countries involved in and consulted as part of project implementation. Maximum grant amount per project: EUR 3,375,000. The grant form is lump sum with budget categories of lump sum contributions. Budget flexibility does not apply; changes to estimated budget always require an amendment. The Model Grant Agreement sets the framework for the grant including deliverables, reporting and payments. Project activities must be organised into work packages aligned with milestones defined in Annex 3. The roadmap must be a deliverable for each milestone. Separate work packages must be included for project management/coordination and communication/dissemination. Project duration normally ranges between 18 and 48 months with activities normally completed by 31 December 2033. Reporting includes continuous reporting on deliverables and milestones, and periodic reporting for payments (prefinancing, interim, and final payments). EU contribution will only be paid for completed work packages if milestones, deliverables and results are fully achieved.
10 Online · Manual Submission and Evaluation Procedures The EU Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual provides detailed guidance on submission and evaluation procedures. Submission is a 2-step process: (1) create EU Login account and register organisation in Participant Register to obtain PIC; (2) submit proposal via Electronic Submission System. Part A (administrative information) is filled online; Part B (technical description) and annexes are uploaded as password-protected zip archive (AES-256 encryption, max 100 MB). Passwords must be communicated to [contact removed] before deadline. Classified information must be submitted separately by post. Proposals must be submitted before deadline; no extensions possible. After submission, proposals are sealed and not accessed until after deadline. Evaluation involves admissibility/eligibility check, then independent evaluation committee assessment through individual evaluation, consensus group discussion, and panel review. Evaluators score proposals 0-5 on each criterion. Proposals with same score receive priority order per call conditions. Evaluation results communicated with evaluation summary reports. Participants can submit complaints within 30 days of receiving rejection letter.
11 Model · Grant Agreement Terms and Conditions The Model Grant Agreement (Lump Sum MGA for EDIP/USI) sets out the legal and financial framework for the grant. Key provisions include: (1) Grant form is lump sum action grant for work package completion; (2) Maximum grant amount set in Data Sheet; (3) Funding rate not applicable; (4) Budget categories are lump sum contributions; (5) Budget flexibility does not apply - changes require amendment; (6) Eligible contributions are lump sum contributions set in Annex 2 for completed work packages with properly implemented work and achieved results per Annex 1; (7) Ineligible contributions include those not complying with conditions, activities already funded under other EU grants (except Synergy actions), and activities outside eligible countries unless approved; (8) Beneficiaries must implement action as described in Annex 1 and comply with Agreement provisions; (9) Reporting includes continuous reporting on deliverables/milestones and periodic reporting for payments; (10) Payments include prefinancing, interim payments, and final payment; (11) Prefinancing guarantees may be required; (12) No-profit rule not applicable; (13) Consortium agreement recommended; (14) Beneficiaries jointly responsible for technical implementation; (15) Affiliated entities can charge lump sum contributions under same conditions as beneficiaries; (16) Associated partners participate without funding; (17) Subcontractors may participate if necessary; (18) Grant may be reduced or terminated for non-compliance, breach of obligations, or changes affecting implementation.
12 Participant · Information Requirements Participant information must be provided for all beneficiaries, affiliated entities, and associated partners and uploaded as part of the application. For each participant, the following information must be provided: (1) Legal name (short name) and role (COO/BEN/AE/AP); (2) PIC (Participant Identification Code); (3) Legal registration number; (4) Place of establishment (country of registration and full address); (5) Location of global headquarters/head office; (6) Location of executive management structure; (7) Description of participant explaining how it matches its main role and tasks in the proposal; (8) Key staff (for beneficiaries and affiliated entities only) - short description of profile of persons primarily responsible for carrying out proposed activities, demonstrating operational capacity with sufficient know-how, qualifications and resources; (9) Projects or Activities (for beneficiaries and affiliated entities only) - list of up to 5 relevant previous projects or activities connected to tasks to be performed; (10) Affiliated Entities/Associated Partners (for beneficiaries only) - description of entities/partners, their link to participant, and tasks foreseen. For associated partners not established in eligible countries, explanation required on why participation does not contravene EU/MS security and defence interests, consistency with EDIP/USI objectives, prevention of unauthorised access to classified information, and avoidance of negative effects on security of supply. This section is not bound by any page limit.
13 Infrastructure, · Facilities, Assets and Resources Declaration Participants must declare and provide details on the location of infrastructure, facilities, assets and resources that will be used for the action. This includes: (1) Offices, laboratories, production capabilities; (2) Technical equipment, tools, software, patents at disposal of applicant; (3) Personnel expertise and know-how in field covered by action; (4) For cloud services: location of servers plus place of establishment of owner/operating entity; (5) For space assets or services: location of ground stations plus place of establishment of owner/operating entity. For each infrastructure/facility, the following must be provided: (1) Short description; (2) Beneficiary/Affiliated Entity/subcontractor to which linked; (3) Owner (if different from BEN/AE/subcontractor); (4) Precise location (number, street, city, postal code and country); (5) Justification for infrastructure located outside eligible countries (why no readily available alternatives, how it does not contravene EU/MS security and defence interests, consistency with EDIP/USI objectives); (6) Facility security clearance status (if needed for classified information handling). In principle, only infrastructure, facilities, assets and resources located in eligible countries may be used. Assets located outside eligible countries may exceptionally be authorised if no readily available alternatives exist, use does not contravene EU/MS security and defence interests, and is consistent with EDIP/USI objectives. However, infrastructure located outside eligible countries will NOT be eligible for reimbursement under the grant.