The European Defence Fund
The EDF provides €8 billion over 2021-2027 for defence research and development in all operational and technological domains (land, sea, air, space, cyber, information, energy, materials, CBRN, etc.) through annual work programs.
The EDF follows the pilot programs EDIDP and PADR. The EDF aims to foster an innovative and competitive defence industrial base and contributed to EU’s strategic autonomy. The EDF has two strands: research and development.
For more information on the EDF, see the EC website: https://defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu/eu-defence-industry/european-defence-fund-edf_en
The EDF in the Netherlands
The Netherlands Defence Technological and Industrial Base (NLDTIB) currently concerns around 1,000 companies with 5 billion euro turnover evenly distributed across all domains. The NLDTIB is highly specialized, 88% of the industry consists of SMEs. It is also innovative as 14% turnover is devoted to R&D. 20% of employees work on R&D. The Netherlands industry is export-oriented, 52% of turnover is derived from organizations’ exports.
The Netherlands performed well in the results of EDF 2021. It is ranked 6th below FR, IT, ES, DE, GR. In this way, it outperformed goals set out in the Defence Industry Strategy (DIS) to rank at least 10th.
