Synergies between civilian and defence research promise to speed up innovation and strengthen technological sovereignty in the security and defence sectors.
On 15 February 2022, the EC published a proposal of a roadmap on critical technologies for security and defence. With this roadmap, the European Commission (EC) wishes to create better synergies between the civilian and defence research and assess opportunities of dual use to speed up innovation and strengthen technological sovereignty in the security and defence sectors. Overall, the roadmap aims to improve internal coordination between EU programmes and instruments by 2022. It will also contribute to the upcoming EU Strategic Compass for security and defence. In the Strategic Compass, Member states establish their common strategic vision for the next decade to provide a shared approach to deal with challenges and threats, set ambitions and long-term goals to enhance Europe’s security and defence. The Strategic Compass is due to be adopted in March 2022.
In February 2021, the EC published an Action Plan on synergies between civil, defence, and space industries. The Action Plan was foreseen in the Industrial Strategy for Europe in March 2020 and includes specific policy actions under three objectives: i. Synergies (improving complementarity between relevant EU programmes and instruments to improve investment efficiency and effectiveness of results), ii. Spin-offs (ensuring that EU funding for research and development, including defence and space, has economic and technological dividends for EU citizens), iii. Spin-ins (facilitating the use of civil industry research achievements and civil-driven innovation in European defence cooperation projects). The EC will oversee the implementation of the Action Plan closely with the European Parliament and Council. To push “cross-fertilisation between civil, defence and space industries”, the EC will monitor the specific progress of each of the 11 listed actions and will present a progress report every two years. The timeline for implantation of each action will be aligned with the planning of the relevant EU instruments.
Currently, there is still a broad consensus in Europe to finance civilian and military research separately: civilian research through the EU framework programmes with the current Horizon Europe programme, and the European Defence Agency with its European Defence Fund for military research. With the European Defence Fund launched last year to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy in defence-related technologies (see SwissCore article), more money was made available. However, at a conference organised in February 2022, delegates of members states agreed that the programme will only achieve its objective if all member states agree on common security needs and convince research institutes and SMEs to cooperate with the Europe’s large defence companies on military projects. Currently, stakeholders, especially researchers and SMEs, are wary of engaging with the defence industry. Another challenge lies in possible overlaps between civil and military research as new technologies, especially digital technologies, transform the security and defence sectors quicker than ever before, erasing the line between the civilian and military research.
The presented roadmap goes along with the need to address global challenges and threats though a European Defence Union, as Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, indicated in her 2021 State of the Union Address. She said that security can only be achieved if stability in the neighbourhood and across different regions is provided. Besides, the EU should be a unique security provider, where the NATO or the UN will not be present, combining military and civilian support, along with diplomacy and development in order to build and protect peace. The Defence Union has to be built on a foundation of collective decision-making, improved interoperability, and readiness in cyber security through a new European Cyber Policy with legislation and common standards under a new European Cyber Resilience Act. According to von der Leyen, the EU should become a more active player in pushing peace with initiatives, such as the new Global Gateway. She also mentioned that work on Schengen should be done to ensure unity in protecting external EU borders and to find a common ground on how to manage migration with a New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Finally, von der Leyen emphasised that the EU was built on common democratic values and that the EU wants to defend these values globally.