On 20/03/2026, the Council of Ministers has approved the 6th edition of the DEFRA call. In 2026 DEFRA has launched 3 calls of proposals in parallel:
The sixth call of the DEFRA programme covers the following research themes, with their indicative budget:
| THEMES DEFRA CALL 2026 | Indicative budget (in M€) |
|---|---|
| Theme 1 - Resilient Propulsion Technologies for Strategic Autonomy | 2.0 |
| Theme 2 - Cyber : Advanced Data Management and Intelligence Concepts | 3.0 |
| Theme 3 - Innovative Solutions for Military Medical Logistics in Challenging Environments | 2.0 |
| Theme 4 - Biomanufacturing | 2.0 |
| Theme 5 - Smart energy management, energy optimisation (including optimised storage technologies) | 3.0 |
| Theme 6 - Next generation sensing | 2.0 |
| Theme 7 - Exploring and Integrating Unmanned Systems | 2.0 |
| Theme 8 - Conflict Dynamics & Warning Intelligence | 2.0 |
| Theme 9 - Communications Technology | 2.0 |
| Theme 10 - Open call: Defence relevant research | 6.0 |
| TOTAL | 26.0 |
Proposals can only be introduced in the “Open call: Defence relevant research” if the subject of the proposal does not correspond with one of the other nine themes.
For all themes, projects will have a duration of minimum 2 and maximum 4 years.
| Activity | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Information days (in Dutch or French) | 27 and 28 January 2026 |
| Deadline Pre-proposals | 19 February 2026 (14h00) |
| Communication of evaluation result pre-proposals | 23-25 March 2026 |
| Deadline Full proposals | 4 May 2026 (14h00) |
| Remote scientific peer review evaluation | 5 May - 1 June 2026 |
| Ethical evaluation | 5 May - 5 June 2026 |
| Feedback to applicants in preparation of panel meeting (remote scientific peer evaluation, ethical evaluation & consensus reports and questions to applicants) | 10 June 2026 |
| Written feedback by applicants (answers) | 19 June 2026 |
| Panel evaluation, incl. interviews with the applicants | Between 22 June and 15 July |
| Selection proposal formulated by the scientific committee of the RHID | 3 September 2026 |
| Final selection of proposals by the board of directors of the RHID and allocation of projects | 10 September 2026 |
| Communication of results to applicants | 14 September 2026 |
Call information
Template for the Pre-proposal:
Templates for the full proposal:
Documents for evaluators:
The pre-proposals as well as the full proposals must be electronically created, elaborated and submitted via the online submission platform.
The templates for the pre-proposal and the full proposal are made available on the website. However, after the evaluation of the pre-proposals, for each pre-defined theme (themes 1 to 9) a maximum of five pre-proposals will be invited to submit a full proposal. For theme 10 “Open call: Defence relevant research” maximum ten pre-proposals will be invited to submit a full proposal.
A new submission platform is being developed. More information will follow soon.
