The European Defence Agency (EDA) began implementing two strategic defence research projects, ECOBALLIFE and ARTURO, that were selected under the European Defence Fund (EDF) 2021 call for proposals. AITEX participates in the ECOBALLIFE project.

The EDF incentivises cooperation and supports the competitiveness of the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base. It aims at providing financial support to defence research and capability development. In line with the EDF Regulations and following the signature of the Contribution Agreement by the European Commission, EDA is responsible for the indirect management of the projects.

ECOBALLIFE european project

The ECOBALLIFE project is a European research project that has obtained funding from the European Defense Funds (EDF-2021-MATCOMP-R) under Grant Agreement No. 101074905 for a global value of €10,004,286.32. It started on September 1, 2023 and lasts 42 months.

It is a project led by TECNALIA and in which 16 partners from 6 different countries participate, including AITEX (from Spain): TECNALIA, INDUSTRIAL OLMAR; VTT, MIILUX, EXOTE and FY-COMPOSITES (Finland); AMIRES SRO and BOGGES SPOL. (Czech Republic); LEONARDO – SOCIETA PER AZIONI and PETROCERAMICS (Italy); COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTER NATIVES (France); and CITEVE, IDEIA.M and SASIA – RECICLAGEM DE FIBRAS TEXTEIS (Portugal).

AITEX, as leader of the project, will focus on the development of lighter, more comfortable and modular personal ballistic protection, including helmets, through the development of trilaminar fabrics and auxetic structure composites, which will also be integrated into the armor of military vehicles to check the ability to increase protection without weight penalty. All of this will be developed through the use of eco-design tools to increase the recyclability of current bulletproof vests by 30%.

The project ‘Research in Eco-designed Ballistic Systems for Durable Lightweight Protections Against Current and New Threats in Platform and Personal Applications’ was selected in the EDF area of materials and structures for enhanced protection in hostile environments. It analyses new materials and technologies improving protection for soldiers and vehicles against a wide range of threats and identifies European know-how in the field of military protection systems.

The European Defence Agency (EDA) began implementing two strategic defence research projects, ECOBALLIFE and ARTURO, that were selected under the European Defence Fund (EDF) 2021 call for proposals.

The EDF incentivises cooperation and supports the competitiveness of the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base. It aims at providing financial support to defence research and capability development. In line with the EDF Regulations and following the signature of the Contribution Agreement by the European Commission, EDA is responsible for the indirect management of the projects.