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The European Defence Agency (EDA) is organising the 2nd Autonomous Systems Community of Interest Conference, taking place on 4-5 November 2025 in Tallinn, Estonia.
The 2nd ASCI Conference
This EDA event, in partnership with the Estonian Ministry of Defence and supported by MILREM Robotics, will feature 40 speakers, moderators, and panellists, from MS, Ukraine, EDA, European Commission, EU Military Staff (EUMS), NATO, the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD), and key industrial and academic actors, ensuring a high-visibility and high-impact exchange.
The conference will run in parallel with a mini-EXPO of Estonian AS-related industries and will take place back-to-back with the 3rd UAS Operational Users Symposium (06–07 November 2025). ASCI participants will have access to the mini-EXPO.
The 2nd ASCI Conference will promote interaction among ASCI members and address a broad set of priority topics:
- European strategic outlook on autonomous systems.
- European industry perspective on autonomous systems.
- Fostering collaboration to streamline development and procurement processes.
- Experimenting, developing, and training together.
- Member States’ lessons and perspectives on AS – considerations on Unmanned Units in Armed Forces.
- Evolving dynamics of modern warfare – scenario based wargaming and lessons observed.
- Scaling up European Defence: Bridging funding gaps and enabling growth for strategic assets.
Kindly note that this conference is open only for ASCI members and is by invitation-only.
Registration as an ASCI member is open to Governmental and non-Governmental experts from EU Member States, industries, universities, or Research & Technology Organizations (RTO), and can be done at: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/e785a1ae-b4de-9ccf-581a-396919b2641d
The EDA’s Action Plan on Autonomous Systems (APAS)
The EDA’s Action Plan on Autonomous Systems (APAS) was approved on 11 January 2024 to support the Member States (MS) to speed up the development of highly effective, efficient, and reliable autonomous systems (AS) for land, air, maritime, and cross-domain operations. Embracing a holistic approach to the development of AS, the plan addresses various challenges encompassing technology discovery, development, and integration, to enhance AS abilities and non-technological aspects such as concept development, taxonomy, test, validation & verification, certification, standardization, and regulation.
The APAS proposes a synergistic and complementary trajectory, fostering collaboration among EU programmes and entities, notably the EDA and the European Commission. This collaborative strategy acknowledges the unique features and priorities of each entity, and contributes to enhance efficiency in investments, optimization of results, and to accelerate technology identification, development and transition to military capabilities, beyond research and innovation activities and in line with EU Capability Development Priorities. Moreover, it is also intended to stimulate the spin in of EU civil-driven research and innovation.
The Autonomous Systems Community of Interest (ASCI)
A key feature of the APAS is the establishment of an Autonomous Systems Community of Interest (ASCI). This community will ensure the contribution from diverse governmental and non-governmental experts, employing a cross-functional and cross-Directorate approach. The objective is to facilitate cooperation, promote the exchange of perspectives, experiences, and knowledge, thereby maximizing EU efforts on AS and expediting their development in a unified and coordinated manner. The establishment of this community is without prejudice to, and will not duplicate, the ongoing and future activities on autonomous air, land and maritime systems carried out by the existing EDA communities, project teams or working groups.
The ASCI will be granted visibility into key AS activities through a dedicated EDA webpage – currently under development. Additionally, it will actively participate in and co-organise thematic events such as conferences, seminars, workshops, where sectoral topics, emerging challenges, opportunities, critical factors, and potential solutions will be discussed. Moreover, the ASCI will be offered the opportunity to provide insights for future reviews of the APAS.
The events with ASCI involvement will be tailored on an ad hoc basis to best support the implementation of the APAS and discuss specific aspects of future AS. These events will reach diverse audiences, with varying levels of expertise and responsibility. Anticipated topics for these events encompass all elements of the APAS, namely:
- Technology for AS (Land, Air, Maritime, cross-domain, enablers);
- Concept of use (CONUSE), concept of operations (CONOPS), operational requirements and training;
- Test, Validation and Verification;
- Certification;
- Standardisation and taxonomy;
- Regulatory and ethical considerations.
Registration as an ASCI member is open to Governmental and non-Governmental experts from EU Member States, industries, universities, or Research & Technology Organizations (RTO), and and can be done at: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/e785a1ae-b4de-9ccf-581a-396919b2641d