EU ministers adopt programme for agile and rapid defence innovation
European Union ministers formally adopted on October 12 the regulation establishing the programme for agile and rapid defence innovation (AGILE), a statement by the Council of the EU said.
This is a new 115 million euro instrument providing rapid, agile and targeted financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – including start-ups and scale-ups – developing emerging and disruptive defence products.
The adoption follows the provisional agreement reached with the European Parliament on July 15 2026, and the European Parliament’s vote in plenary on October 6.
Designed as a nimble complement to the EU’s existing toolbox of defence industrial instruments, AGILE will help SMEs move from prototype to operational capability, the Council of the EU statement said.
In statement on October 12, the European Commission (EC) said that it welcomed the adoption of the programme “which will bring disruptive defence technology from the lab to the field at record speed”.
The EC said that the programme will operate with an unprecedented time-to-grant of just four months and for technologies to reach defence forces between one to three years.
It will support between 20 and 30 projects, providing up to 100 per cent funding for all eligible costs. To facilitate quick innovation, the funding will also allow companies to retroactively claim expenses claimed up to three months prior to the closing of the call for applications.
The work programme will cover two main types of activities: mission-driven development of disruptive defence products and technologies and market delivery by helping defence solutions reach the actual markets.
AGILE has been adopted in record time, in less than seven months after the Commission tabled its proposal in March 2026, the EC said. “The swift adoption reflects EU’s commitment to strengthen Europe’s capacity to innovate,” it said.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has demonstrated that success on the battlefield relies on new technologies, from drones and autonomous systems to artificial, the EC said.
“Europe’s ability to develop, test, and deploy new technologies and cost-efficient solutions in weeks or months rather than years is now being tested.”
AGILE responds to this need by giving innovative smaller players the support and speed they need to bring promising defence solutions to the armed forces, the statement said.
In practice, the programme will support startups and tech innovators with faster, more flexible funding and allow innovations to be deployed as quickly as possible, it said.
The AGILE programme is expected to become fully operational as of early 2027. The Commission is currently preparing the programme’s implementation, which will be monitored and assessed by the Council of the EU and the European Parliament.
