Munich

Plans for a European defence research agency took a tentative step forward this week, when the European Commission (EC) announced that it would fund €65 million (US$76 million) of security-related research and development over three years.

The EC will spend the money on research into what it terms “non-offensive” military capabilities, such as non-lethal weapons for riot control or early-warning systems against bioterrorism. €9 million will be released to kick-start research in 2004. The rest will need approval by the European parliament.

The pilot programme — the EC's first foray into military research — will fund joint academic–industry projects, and a call for proposals will go out in January, an EC spokesman said. The European Security Research Programme will be jointly administered by the EC directorates for research and enterprise.

But the project could form the nucleus of a much wider involvement in military research. On 6 October, a group of advocates including Lord Robertson, the NATO secretary general, presented a plan for a fully-fledged European Union (EU) defence research agency to EC officials. The meeting also included the chief executives of electronics companies Siemens and Ericsson, and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company. Europe's military-equipment industry has been lobbying for years for such an outfit, possibly along similar lines to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (see Nature 421, 465; 200310.1038/421465a).

Advocates would like to see it up and running by 2007, but this is unlikely as the new agency will require approval from the European parliament, says Elly Plooij-van Gorsel, a Dutch member of the parliament. She adds that military research needs funds beyond the existing EU research budget.