Portuguese institutions chosen to defend Europe

Thirteen Portuguese companies, universities and institutes have been selected by the European Commission to strengthen the protection of member states. Its projects, which will be developed in a consortium with organizations from several countries, will be funded by the European Defense Fund and promise to protect citizens from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, create new capabilities to prevent cyber attacks or even strengthen underwater defenses. among other purposes. The decision was announced on May 16 and involves the distribution of 1.031 million euros between various projects. Portugal is involved in eleven of these projects.

There are companies that are involved in more than one project: Gmvis Skysoft (2) or Thales Edisoft Portugal (3). The companies selected were Optimal Structural Solutions, Neuraspace, Ricardo Domingos & Bergano, SISTRADE and VoiceInteraction, as well as university institutions such as Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, INEGI – Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, CEiiA – Center for Engineering and product development, INOV – Institute for System and Computer Innovation, INESC and Instituto Superior Técnico.

One of the consortiums that received funding, including Lisbon-based Portuguese company Gmvis Skysoft, is called OPTIMAS and aims to create a secure military laser communications system. The total cost of the project is estimated at almost 22 million euros, it is funded by the EU with 17 million euros and aims to, within 36 months, “define, design and test an airborne laser communication system applicable to multiple constellations of satellites that will be integrated into the air” . naval and ground units,” says the European Commission. For example, it can enable communications between a drone and a satellite with high data rates and quantum key distribution. A quantum key is a method of communicating with quantum computing components known as supercomputers. The latter resort to quantum mechanics instead of the binary code of personal computers and are capable of putting vital infrastructure at risk.

To respond to this cybersecurity threat, the European Defense Fund has also selected the SEQURED project, which will be 100% EU-funded to strengthen security systems against quantum computing threats. INESC will be part of this consortium.

Three Portuguese companies are already involved in the SEACURE project, which brings together several unmanned platform systems involved in anti-submarine operations and securing critical infrastructure on the seabed. CEiiA, Gmvis Skysoft and Thales Edisoft Portugal are part of a group of 31 institutions. The attack submarine project is estimated at 60 million euros, of which 45 million euros are funded by the EU.

Optimal Structural Solutions, based in Alcabides, will help develop new artillery ammunition with a range of at least 60 kilometers and greater accuracy through the FIRES 2 consortium. On the other hand, INEGI will participate in the MaJoR project, which intends to create platforms capable of creating such systems. reduce the cost of integrating military technologies for air, sea and land by 40%, which increases production speed by 30% and speeds up the weapons design process by 30%.

One of the 100% EU-funded projects, worth around €6 million, will be Linguarise-DC, which invests in methods for analyzing, producing, modifying or responding to human texts and speech: language technologies. According to the European Commission, this is an urgent need in the European defense sector.

So far, the European Defense Fund has invested more than 3 billion out of a planned budget of 7 billion until 2027. A total of 581 organizations from 26 Member States and Norway are included in the selected projects.

Once the projects to be funded are announced, grant agreements are prepared with the various consortia and, once this stage of the process is completed, signatures are expected to be signed before the end of the year.