Funding call · Cyberagentur · Germany
IRIS: Robust Interaction of Robotic Systems in Heterogeneous Swarms for Crisis and Disaster Operations (Cyberagentur)
Cyberagentur (DE) · published 04 Aug 2026 · · Source ↗
Deadline06 Oct 2026 49 days left
Budget / value—
Statusunknown
Why it matters
Cyberagentur PCP calls fund early-stage R&D at up to 100% and are open to bidders from EU, Switzerland, NATO and NATO AP4 partners, which is unusually broad for a German defence-adjacent buyer. Relevant to autonomy-stack, swarm-control and resilient-navigation teams able to run GNSS-denied multi-robot experiments.
Do this: Register on www.evergabe-online.de and submit a participation request plus project sketch for IRIS by 06.10.2026 11:00, showing prior work on GNSS-denied swarm autonomy and human-swarm control.
Route: grant application · For: BD / bid leads at defence-tech scale-upsEstablished SME suppliers & subsystem makers
Summary
Germany's Cyberagentur has opened a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) research programme, IRIS, on robust, self-organising heterogeneous robotic swarms that stay operational under jamming, GNSS/GPS outages, broken radio links and harsh environments. Work covers robot-robot and human-swarm interaction for reconnaissance, protection, transport and situational-awareness tasks. Participation requests and project sketches are due 6 October 2026, 11:00, via evergabe-online.de; place of performance is Halle (Saale). No budget is stated.
Eligibility
Bidders from EU member states, Switzerland, NATO members or NATO partners, notably AP4 (South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand); PCP procedure akin to negotiated procedure with prior participation competition.
Source text (raw, may be non-English)
Beschreibung: Heterogene robotische Verbünde können perspektivisch Aufklärung, Schutz, Transport, Unterstützung und Lagebilderzeugung in Umgebungen übernehmen, in denen Menschen nicht oder nur unter hohem Risiko eingesetzt werden. Besonders bedeutsam wird dies dort, wo (gezielte) Störungen im elektromagnetischen Spektrum, GPS-Ausfälle oder dynamische Umgebungen klassische Systeme an ihre Grenzen bringen. IRiS adressiert deshalb die Frage, wie sich robuste, selbstorganisierende und adaptive Verbünde entwickeln lassen, die auch unter widrigen Bedingungen handlungsfähig bleiben. Das Forschungsprogramm zielt darauf, Ansätze zu identifizieren und weiterzuentwickeln, mit denen robotische Systeme in heterogenen Verbünden robust interagieren können – trotz Störsendern, schwieriger Umgebungsbedingungen, unterbrochener Funkverbindungen oder beeinträchtigter Navigationssignale. Dafür werden Fragen der Roboter-Roboter-Interaktion sowie der Mensch-Schwarm-Interaktion betrachtet. Vergabestelle: Agentur für Innovation in der Cybersicherheit GmbH Leistungen und Erzeugnisse: Forschungs- und Entwicklungsdienste und zugehörige Beratung Ausschreibungsweite: EU-Mitgliedstaaten, Schweiz, NATO-Mitgliedsland oder NATO-Partner, insbesondere AP4 (Asien-Pazifik Partner – Südkorea, Japan, Australien und Neuseeland) Vergabeverfahren: PCP-Verfahren in Anlehnung an ein Verhandlungsverfahren mit Teilnahmewettbewerb Frist für die Einreichung der Teilnahmeanträge und Projektskizzen: 06.10.2026, 11:00 Uhr über www.evergabe-online.de Erfüllungsort: Halle (Saale), Kreisfreie Stadt Kontakt: nur über www.evergabe-online.de CPV-Code: 73000000
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Source: https://www.cyberagentur.de/vergaben/robuste-interaktion-robotischer-systeme-in-heterogenen-schwaermen-fuer-den-einsatz-in-krisen-und-katastrophensituationen-iris/ — summarised by Rearm Radar; verify details at source before bidding. Enrichment: anthropic/claude-opus-5 (confidence 90%).