The implementation of EXCEED, the last of the three defence research projects selected under the 2018 call for proposals for the EU Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR), was officially launched at an online kick-off meeting held this Wednesday and Thursday (4/5 November). It followed the signing, last week, of the grant agreement worth €12 million between EDA and the winning consortium led by STMicroelectronics (France).
EXCEED stands for ‘trustEd and fleXible system-on-Chip for EuropEan Defence applications’. It was selected following an EU-wide PADR call for proposals on the topic of ‘European high-performance, trustable (re)configurable system-on-a-chip or system-in-package for defence applications’ organised by EDA in 2018.
The project aims at creating a European supply chain of reconfigurable, flexible and trustable programmable system-on-a-chip family targeting a number of ruggedized and secure defence applications such as for radio frequency (RF) sensors and signal processing arrays, flexible radios, secure positioning and navigation, UAV data links, military networks, flexible cryptography engines, dismounted soldier, guidance and mission critical controllers. The security of the System-on-chip architecture is studied in detail to cope with EU Classified information and defence specificities as well as country-specific requirements, through protection, personalisation and life-cycle management. The project also focuses on System Development Tools. The secure chip is fabricated in a trusted environment in Europe. The demonstrator chip will be a mid-scale member of the family.
The winning consortium encompasses a total of 19 participants from 6 EU countries and Norway. More information on the consortium can be found in the EXCEED project page.
About the PADR
The EXCEED project is part of the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) launched by the European Commission in 2017 to assess and demonstrate the added-value of EU supported defence research and technology (R&T). It paved the way for a proper European Defence Programme to come as of next year as part of the European Defence Fund (EDF), under the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (2021-2027).
The PADR implementation is run by EDA following the mandate via a Delegation Agreement between the European Commission and EDA signed on 31 May 2017. By this agreement the Commission entrusts EDA with the management and implementation of the research projects launched within the PADR.