Ukraine, EU launch $117 million military innovation partnership
Ukraine and the EU will allocate 100 million euro ($117 million) to boost battlefield-driven solutions under the newly-launched BraveTech EU initiative, announced at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) in Rome on July 11.
The initiative was jointly announced by Ukraine's Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius.
BraveTech EU marks the first major technological alliance between Ukraine and Europe on equal terms, with each side contributing 50 million euro ($58 million).
The initiative will focus on small and medium-sized enterprises and startups in Ukraine and Europe. It will help exchange regulatory experience, develop innovations, scale them up, and rapidly procure new defense technologies.
"European colleagues will receive results from the battlefield," Fedorov said at URC.
Other European countries may also join the initiative's funding, according to Fedorov.
"The EU and its member states have an industrial capacity that can help Ukraine develop new defense systems and increase European resilience," Kubilius said in a press release.
The program will unfold in two phases, starting with hackathons for Ukrainian and European defense companies in autumn 2025, Fedorov wrote on his Telegram page.
In 2026, they plan to expand the program with larger grants, startup scaling support, and investments in the most promising projects.
The BraveTech EU initiative will integrate Ukraine's defense industry into European mechanisms, connecting Ukraine's BRAVE1 defense technology platform with EU instruments, including the European Defense Fund (EDF) and the EU Defense Innovation Scheme (EUDIS).