23 Apr 2025
Commission proposes to extend STEP to defence-related technologies
On 22 April 2025, the European Commission published a proposal for a new regulation to strengthen the EU budget in the area of defence. The proposal extends the scope of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) to include defence-related technologies and products, in particular those prioritised in the recent White Paper for European Defence - Readiness 2030.
STEP aims to effectively support the development of cutting-edge technologies that are essential for the EU's defence readiness by awarding a STEP label to selected projects under the European Defence Fund, Horizon Europe and Digital Europe. Furthermore, start-ups working on dual-use and defence innovations will also be reached via EIC.
The planned Horizon Europe amendment aims at enabling support to technologies with potential dual-use applications under the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, as well as equity support for technologies with a focus on defence applications for scale-up. Unused amounts and potential returns from investments made by the EIC Fund during the pilot phase under Horizon 2020 should be made available in order to finance additional projects in dual use and defence benefitting from the amended scope.
This package is intended to complement the Omnibus Defence Simplification Package, which the EC intends to present in June.
In the European R&I community, first voices are being raised that this will bury the purely civilian approach in Horizon Europe.
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