The European Defence Agency and the European Commission signed an agreement on 29 April giving the Agency responsibility for the next phase of BraveTech EU, a joint EU – Ukraine defence innovation initiative.
BraveTech EU is intended to speed up defence innovation by bringing together EU and Ukrainian defence industries and using lessons drawn from battlefield experience in Ukraine, the EDA said in a statement on Wednesday.
Under the €35 million agreement, the European Defence Agency (EDA) will run BraveTech EU’s second phase, focused on testing emerging defence technologies and ideas proposed by European and Ukrainian innovators, small and medium-sized enterprises, and start-ups.
Military experts from EU countries, Ukraine, the EDA and the European Commission will then assess proposed solutions against different operational scenarios drawn from the war in Ukraine.
EDA chief executive André Denk said the Agency’s involvement would help turn “promising technologies and ideas into solutions that can be assessed, matured and brought to operational use.”
What BraveTech EU is and how it is funded
BraveTech EU has a total budget of €100 million and is being implemented in two phases, Seed and Scale Up, the statement said.
It described BraveTech EU as a joint European Union – Ukraine initiative led by the European Commission, bringing together the European Defence Fund, the EU Defence Innovation Scheme, the European Defence Agency and Ukraine’s BRAVE1 platform for joint development, testing and deployment of defence solutions.
