Nokia to Lead European Robotics and Unmanned Tech Project

Nokia has been selected to lead PROACTIF, a project funded by the European Union’s Chips Joint Undertaking. It aims to strengthen Europe’s technology resilience and leadership in ECS technologies and support the autonomy of the European Drone and Robotics industry.

The consortium anticipates generating around €90 million in revenue, 50 products, and more than 15 new industry patents by 2035, enabling increased market share and leadership. The project's additional impact includes dozens of new collaborations, hundreds of new jobs, and over €40 million of additional investments.

“Nokia’s extensive expertise has helped establish drone technology best practices and transform drones into daily helpers for public safety and mission-critical operations. We are honored to lead this project. It demonstrates Nokia’s commitment to fostering innovation and resilience across Europe. By collaborating with leading organizations, this initiative will address critical challenges in security and sustainability, delivering real-world benefits for society,“ said Thomas Eder, Head of Embedded Wireless Solutions at Nokia.

The PROACTIF consortium brings together 42 partners and four affiliates from 13 countries with a focus on critical infrastructure surveillance and emergency management in Europe. Under Nokia’s leadership, the venture will redefine how emergencies and critical infrastructure are managed in Europe. It will unite academic institutions, SMEs, and industry leaders to develop cutting-edge, cost-efficient, eco-efficient, safe, and cyber-secure unmanned vehicle (UxV) systems to address European civil security needs.

The project will develop nine advanced technology building blocks and five UxV platforms, emphasizing interoperability, autonomy, and rapid deployment to meet Europe’s societal and market needs. The use of UxV technologies enables a more holistic understanding of an incident's location and severity, as well as comprehensive situational awareness, through frequent and efficient sensor data gathering.