Two GIZ-GOIS (Economic Interest Grouping) workshops: From shared ideas to European defense projects
The IronShield 360 and BioGuardian consortia have taken a new step towards applications for the European Defence Fund 2027.
At GIZ-GOIS, g.i.z., we held two workshops in recent weeks, where Slovenian companies, research organizations and experts in the field of defense technologies met. The common goal was clear: to turn the concept into a concrete project that can successfully compete for funds from the European Defense Fund (EDF) and the EUDIS program.
It was not just another brainstorming session, but rather decision-making workshops. The participants assessed whether the concepts contained sufficient technological, industrial, and business substance to proceed to the preparation of applications.
🔷 Workshop 1: IronShield 360 – from concept to development and industrialization
IronShield 360 is a modular European system providing 360-degree protection for military bases, logistics hubs, and critical infrastructure against unmanned systems and other emerging aerial and ground-based threats.
The system integrates the entire DETECT → UNDERSTAND → DECIDE → RESPOND chain: sensors and unmanned platforms, edge AI, command and control, and counter-unmanned system (C-UxS) countermeasures.
At the workshop, we devised a “one product, two complementary financing paths” strategy:
- EUDIS-SME for the development and demonstration of new technologies
- EDIP (C-UxS) for industrialization, production ramp-up, and the European-Ukrainian supply chain
One of the key findings is that competition for the EDF is growing rapidly. The number of applications increased by 74% between 2023 and 2025, while the number of selected projects remains around 60 per year. Success therefore depends on a focused consortium and clear added value at the European level.
🔶 Workshop 2: BioGuardian – From Smart to Autonomous Personal Protection
BioGuardian is a concept for intelligent personal soldier protection. It integrates advanced protective materials, smart textiles, embedded sensors, artificial intelligence, and a digital twin of the soldier (BioTwin).
At the workshop, we reviewed existing European projects (the state of the art) and posed an ambitious question: how can we go a step beyond current solutions? The answer is a closed-loop protection system in which the system detects, predicts, decides, adapts, and learns—all before a soldier or mission is put at risk.
We have formulated a single product vision with three possible project paths:
- Predictive Human Resilience Twin: predicting the decline in a soldier’s performance
- Bio-Adaptive Smart PPE: smart protective equipment that responds to risk
- Personal Protection Autonomy System: comprehensive system demonstrator
What comes next?
At both workshops, we defined the core consortium groups, identified missing capabilities, and outlined the next steps. Moving forward, we will expand the consortia with European partners and prepare them for the EDF 2027 calls once the work programme is published.
GIZ-GOIS continues its mission by:
connecting the Slovenian defense industry, strengthening its capabilities, and guiding it toward European opportunities.
