Programme for Agile and Rapid Defence Innovation (AGILE)

About

The European Commission’s AGILE programme is a €115 million EU instrument that will provide fast-track grants and support for SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups developing emerging and disruptive defence technologies, with first calls expected in early 2027 and Ukraine proposed for association participation.

Benefits

• Programme-level: €115 million indicative budget for 2027.
  Conditional: technology is expected to reach defence forces within one to three years.

Eligibility Criteria

• Mandatory: Applicants must be legal entities established in an EU Member State or in a country associated to AGILE; the regulation provides for association of EFTA/EEA countries and Ukraine under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.
• Mandatory for most AGILE actions: recipients must be SMEs, including innovative start-ups and scale-ups, as defined in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC.
• Mandatory: recipients must have their executive management structures in the EU or an associated third country.
• Mandatory: recipients must not be subject to control by a non-associated third country or by a non-associated third-country entity.
• Mandatory: the infrastructure, facilities, assets and resources used for the funded action must be located in the EU or an associated third country for the entire duration of the action.
• Conditional: the work programme may use an inducement intervention to temporarily waive establishment/executive-management requirements for SMEs from outside the EU or associated countries, subject to later compliance and with no pre-financing.
• Call-specific eligibility and award criteria are to be set in the AGILE work programme.

Participation Commitments

• Post-selection obligations, where applicable: recipients must remain eligible for the entire action, including SME status, EU/associated-country establishment, executive management location, control requirements and location of infrastructure, facilities, assets and resources.
• Recipients must comply with security and classified-information rules where applicable.
• Recipients must acknowledge EU funding and ensure visibility of that funding.
• Recipients must cooperate with audits, OLAF, EPPO and the European Court of Auditors and protect EU financial interests.
• Recipients must comply with ownership and technology-transfer restrictions under the regulation.
• For inducement-intervention awards, no pre-financing is paid and the recipient must meet the waived establishment/executive-management eligibility criteria within the timeframe in the legal commitment.

Target Region

Applicant geographic eligibility is based on establishment and control: legal entities must be established in an EU Member State or in a country associated to AGILE. The regulation provides for association of EFTA/EEA countries and Ukraine under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement., Executive management structures must be in the EU or an associated third country., Recipients must not be controlled by a non-associated third country or non-associated third-country entity., Infrastructure, facilities, assets and resources used for the funded action must be located in the EU or an associated third country for the entire duration of the action., For most actions, recipients must be SMEs, including innovative start-ups and scale-ups.

Target Sector

Defense & Security