Brave1 and the French Defence Innovation Agency launched the joint Brave France grant program worth €20M

Defence technology cluster Brave1 and the French Defence Innovation Agency have signed an agreement on a bilateral partnership and the launch of the joint grant program Brave France. 

As announced by Brave1.

The program’s total budget is €20 mln, which the parties will fund equally.

What the agreement includes

Under the Brave France program, Ukrainian and French defence companies will focus on creating advanced defence solutions. Priority areas have been defined as:

• rocket technologies;
• unmanned systems;
• modern means to counter aerial threats.

At present, the process of forming a joint executive council is underway, and the parties are finalizing the definition of thematic areas and expert groups.

Additionally, the countries have already approved the key parameters of the upcoming competitions:

• the maximum size of a single grant will be €1 mln;
• testing of developed solutions will be carried out via the Test in Ukraine platform, which will allow technologies to be verified and validated in real combat conditions.

The first competition is scheduled to launch in September 2026.

What is known about projects with Lithuania and Germany

On 12 May 2026 the defence ministers of Ukraine and Germany signed a letter announcing the launch of the joint Brave Germany program. 

The initiative is aimed at grant support for Ukrainian and German Defense Tech startups and the joint development of modern weaponry.

The main priorities will be the development of technologies that affect the course of modern warfare:

• unmanned systems and artificial intelligence;
• laser and rocket technologies;
• new solutions in the field of secure communications.

The Ministry of Defence notes that the key idea of the program — is to meet the Ukrainian front’s technological needs through innovations from partner countries. 

Additionally, on 2 June Ukraine and Lithuania launched the joint grant program Brave Lithuania.

According to Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, the project was created to support innovation. It will be implemented jointly by the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and the Brave1 cluster. 

The joint work will focus on areas directly needed on the battlefield:

• unmanned systems;
• electronic warfare (EW) systems;
• artificial intelligence;
• communication systems and other military technologies.

Recall that in early May, to exchange experience and support defence startups, Ukraine proposed to Sweden to launch the joint Brave Sweden project based on the Brave1 innovation cluster.

Read also: More than 100 Ukrainian defence companies are training AI on the Brave1 Dataroom platform