Press release

Clavister Awarded European Defence Fund Research Project

Clavister, a leader in high-performance, AI-based cybersecurity solutions, has been named as part of of the winning consortium for the European Defence Fund (EDF)’s 2021 call for ‘Unmanned ground vehicle technologies’. General Dynamics European Land Systems, Leonardo, Indra, Sener, Iveco Defence Vehicles and 14 other European defence industry companies are also part of this consortium. Clavister will receive around €530,000 in funding.

On 20th July 2021, European Commission announced plans to grant a total EU funding of almost €1.2 billion supporting 61 collaborative defence research and development projects selected following the first ever calls for proposals under the European Defence Fund (EDF 2021). The Fund’s overall objective is to increase the EU’s technological edge and development of key capabilities for the strategic autonomy and resilience of the Union and its Member States, enhancing citizen protection.

Amongst the selected projects, ‘COMMANDS’ (Convoy Operations with Manned-unManneD Systems), will be centered around development of new technologies for unmanned ground vehicles and Clavister will ensure that the vehicles are protected against cyberattacks. The project will have a duration of three years and the expected EU funding is approximately €25million.

“It’s fantastic to be recognized as a valued member and cybersecurity specialist in this EDF consortium consisting of major defence industry players. This project will enable us to work closely with them to develop the next generation technologies that will help protecting Europe. It’s also an opportunity for Clavister to showcase our capabilities and deepen the relationships with these companies”, said Stefan Brodin, Clavister’s Head of Defence Solutions.

“The defence industry’s interest in unmanned vehicles is increasing rapidly. For example, in the aerial domain, we have seen the use of drones moving from trials into operations quickly. On land, the same is starting to happen now. Unmanned ground vehicles may initially be used for clearing mine fields and logistics, but also to support ground troops with remote controlled weapon systems. The fact that an unmanned vehicle is heavily reliant on sensors and communication makes cyber protection even more important. As a result, Clavister’s contribution to this project will be crucial, and we are excited to work with our defence allies and help build an ecosystem of European cyber defence”, Brodin concludes.

About the COMMANDS project

The results of the project will not only enable to upgrade current ground vehicles of the EU inventory for specific missions, but also to be integrated in future vehicles in development. COMMANDS addresses the requirement of military unmanned ground vehicles to operate not only in controlled paved surfaces, but also in unstructured environments, facing degraded or denied satellite signal and communications scenarios where the development of Computer Based Processing Technologies, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence provide game changing Intelligent Capabilities.

The Technology Demonstrator Programme includes both a laboratory demonstrator and a real scenario Mobile Demonstrator centered around the used case of a Last Kilometre Re-supply Convoy with Force Protection. The capability services architecture is common to manned and unmanned platforms. enabling seamless, standard transition from manned to unmanned. The COMMANDS approach challenges the current state-of-the-art technology insertion, providing more efficient and effective cooperative intelligent behaviour and human-centred ethically aligned services in different Operational States and Environments, complementing manned/unmanned teaming. The proposal is developed in the context of PESCO project iUGS, and strongly aligned with the EU Ground Combat Capability Development Plan.

About European Defence Fund

The European Defence Fund (EDF) incentivises and supports collaborative, cross-border research and development in the area of defence. The Fund will increase the EU’s technological edge and develop the capabilities that are key for the strategic autonomy and resilience of the Union and its Member States and the protection of its citizens. Complementing and amplifying Member States’ efforts, the Fund promotes cooperation among companies and research actors of all sizes and geographic origin in the EU. In doing so, it will integrate further the European defence technological and industrial base, develop industrial skills and competencies as well as the innovation potential of Europe’s industry.

EDF has a budget of close to €8 bn for 2021-2027. €2.7 bn of this budget is to fund collaborative defence research and €5.3 bn euros to fund collaborative capability development projects complementing national contributions.

About Clavister

Clavister is a specialised European cybersecurity company, protecting complex digital businesses for more than two decades. Founded and headquartered in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, Clavister pioneered one of the first firewalls and continues to build robust and adaptive cybersecurity solutions since. Empowering a growing ecosystem of partners and resellers, we have been serving customers in more than 100 countries with 125,000+ deployments across public sector, service provider and defence sectors. Network, cloud, mobile, end points - we secure them all.

The stock, Clavister Holding AB, is listed at Nasdaq First North Growth Market. FNCA Sweden AB is the Company’s Certified Advisor (+46 8-528 00 399, e-mail: info@fnca.se)