EU, national officials look at improving support for dual-use industries, research, development

European Union (EU) and national authorities are exploring how to use the union's next seven-year Horizon 2020 research budget to support Europe's defence industry and foster much stronger dual-use technology development, according to EU and national defence officials. Complementary research between the European Commission and the European Defence Agency (EDA) will also be strengthened, they said.

The possibilities include defining joint technical requirements that serve defence and civil security customers or using the EU's Structural Funds for regional development to help mould technological clusters in favour of small but innovative defence companies.

"More needs to be done to create complementary regional defence clusters and to stimulate interaction between them," Christian Breant, the EDA's director for research and technology, told a two-day EU research workshop on 12-13 March during HOMSEC, Spain's annual defence and security trade fair. "There is an opportunity for the EDA to help stimulate this and we are interested in the Structural Funds in Horizon 2020 and how this could be used to get these clusters going in the right direction."