Does dual-use technology disqualify me from Horizon Europe or the EIC?

No, but the funded action itself has to keep a civil-applications focus — that's a standing condition of Horizon Europe grant agreements. Your technology can still be dual-use in the broader sense; you just can't frame or deliver the Horizon Europe-funded work as military R&D. If it's the defence-facing side you want to develop, that goes through EDF/EUDIS or a national defence-innovation fund instead.

My co-founder or investor is outside the EU — does dual-use status change what I can share with them?

Potentially, yes. Under EU Regulation 2021/821, exporting, brokering or even giving technical assistance on listed dual-use items — aerospace, propulsion, sensor and avionics technology included — needs authorisation from your national competent authority first, and some particularly sensitive items need clearance even for transfers between EU countries. Check your item against the regulation's annexes before sharing designs, source code or samples outside the company.

What is Dual-Use Technology?

Dual-use technology is any product, software or technical know-how that works for both civilian and military users — a satellite bus, a propulsion system, an encryption library or an Earth-observation AI model can all qualify. EU law defines dual-use items as goods, software and technology "that can be used for both civil and military purposes" (Regulation (EU) 2021/821). For a space founder, the label decides which funding programme fits and what export paperwork follows the technology across a border.

Civil-to-defence, defence-to-civil

The European Commission's own innovation strategy treats dual-use as a deliberate two-way street: EU policy wants dual-use potential exploited in both directions, from civil to defence and from defence to civil, ideally designed in from the start of a project rather than retrofitted later. Its list of critical dual-use technology areas names artificial intelligence, advanced materials, nanotechnology, cybersecurity tools, quantum, aerospace and drones — and satellite technologies specifically. That matters for space founders: propulsion, avionics/GNC interfaces and in-orbit servicing systems can serve a debris-removal or refuelling mission on the civil side and an asset-inspection or protection mission on the defence side, without redesigning the underlying hardware.

Same technology, different funding lane

This is where dual-use meets eligibility. Horizon Europe grant agreements require the funded action itself to keep a civil-applications focus, so a proposal framed around military end-use isn't fundable there, even when the underlying technology is dual-use in the broader sense. Once a founder wants to develop the defence-facing side of that same technology, the route runs through EDF and EUDIS instead: the EDF's Defence Equity Facility explicitly backs private funds investing in dual-use defence technologies, and EUDIS runs R&D calls specifically framed around civil-defence synergies in space, among other areas. Several member states also run national defence-innovation funds alongside this EU layer: France's Agence de l'innovation de défense operates RAPID, financing technology demonstrators between TRL 3 and 7 for companies with fewer than 2,000 employees, precisely because they show duality — civil-market potential plus defence interest. The EU Defence Agency's HEDI hub coordinates the wider landscape across all 27 member states. In practice, the same satellite payload can sit in a civil Horizon Europe proposal, an EDF/EUDIS proposal, or a national scheme like RAPID — ownership/control conditions, consortium rules and TRL bands differ by lane, so founders pick the framing as deliberately as the technology.

Export control: the paperwork that follows the tech

Dual-use status also triggers a separate, non-funding obligation. Under EU Regulation 2021/821, dual-use items — a list explicitly including aerospace and propulsion systems, sensors, navigation and avionics equipment alongside electronics and telecoms gear — need authorisation before export outside the EU, brokering, technical assistance, or transit through a member state; some especially sensitive items need clearance even for transfers between EU countries. For a founder this reaches further than shipping hardware: sharing technical data, source code or samples with a non-EU cofounder, investor or conference contact can count as a controlled transfer. Check the item against the regulation's annexes and talk to your national export-control authority before any of that happens — separate from, and just as binding as, any funding eligibility check.

Official source: European Commission — Dual-use technologies; Regulation (EU) 2021/821 — dual-use export controls; European Defence Fund — 2025 Work Programme.

Written by Tymofiy Badikov, founder of VIRA.space (Virtual Innovation Research Assistant) — operated by Space Tech Gateway Sp. z o.o., Kraków Technology Park. VIRA tracks live European space funding calls and checks your eligibility free: see live tenders.