Specific support for research works and innovation for defence: thematic call on space and deep seabed

The French National Research Agency (ANR), in partnership with the French Defence Innovation Agency (AID), is launching the 2023 call for proposals ASTRID: Deep Seabed and Space. The program is entirely funded by the AID and is implemented by ANR.

This call for projects follows the call for interests launched this year on the same thematics and aims to:

• stimulate new research pathways and maintain innovation efforts,
• explore scientific and technological barriers by fostering skill development and identifying technological breakthroughs, as well as relying on networks of excellence,

in both space and deep-sea sectors. Proposals may fall under “experimental research” or “industrial research” for a project duration of 18 to 36 months and a maximum allocated grant under 400 k€.

This thematic call is dedicated to research projects beneficial to both defence and civilian sectors (dual-use) with low level of technological maturity (1 < TRL < 4) and falling under one of the five axes in either the space or deep-sea research domain:

• Environnment knowledge
• Environnment management and control
• Surveillance
• Resilience
• Object- and change-detection (only for the deep-sea research domain)

The program is complementary to the call for projects MATHILD: Deep Seabed and Space aiming to support intermediate level of technological maturity (TRL from 3-4 to 5), currently open for submission (for more information on this call: https://anr.fr/MAZC-2023)