European Defence Agency awards EUR 13.1 million to three research projects
The European Defence Agency (EDA) has awarded €13.1 million to three research and technology projects under its newly launched Joint Investment Programme on Force Protection (JIP-FP). The three successful research and technology (R&T) projects will aim to develop individual innovative protective armour, a multi-sensor anti-sniper system and stand-off detection of chemical, biological, radiological, neurological and explosive (CBRNE) devices. Selected from 30 proposals under the first call of the new Joint Investment Programme on Force Protection (JIP-FP), the projects will be sustained by a pan-European industrial consortium including SMEs, research centres and universities. 'The EDA is delighted that the first contracts under the JIP have been awarded barely six months after the programme was officially launched,' said the Director of Research and Technology (R&T) at the EDA, Bertrand de Cordoue. 'This demonstrates that the innovative model of the programme can make a real difference to promoting collaboration in European defence R&T.' The three-year Joint Investment Programme on Force Protection (JIP-FP), coordinated by the EDA, was launched in January 2007 with a budget of €55 million. With 20 member countries contributing, its goal is to research and develop technologies for protecting armed forces against threats such as snipers, booby traps or improvised bombs. Unlike previous cooperative projects on European defence R&T, which involved governments negotiating financial and industrial shares for each individual project, the JIP sets up a common budget to fund the whole programme. In this way, it hopes to combat Europe's fragmented defence R&T landscape by enabling more effective competition between European consortia. The 20 contributing member countries of the JIP are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.