EDA to enhance technology watch activities

The European Defence Agency (EDA) has launched a new project that aims to increase access to high quality defence technology information for the agency and its stakeholders.

The new Technology Watch activity will develop a media and technology monitoring system that will help the EDA provide better support to the activities of Member States as well as those foreseen under the European Defence Research Programme. It will do so by improving systematic understanding of evolving technical trends and their effect on future European defence capabilities, both long and short term.

Customised versions of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission's monitoring and data analysis tools will be developed, adapted to the needs of defence. In addition to providing both media and technology monitoring components, and using diverse information sources and a combination of search methods, the tools will give the ability to identify tendencies in specific domains in real time. According to the EDA, this is especially important in the current context of fast-paced technological development and can represent a strategic advantage for the European defence community.

Stakeholders will be able to use the outputs from the monitoring systems as background information for the assessment and prioritization phases of defence research and technology planning, essential for the development of strategic research agendas, capability development plans, and to identify key enabling technologies with short and medium term applications.