EDF Cooperation on Predictive Human Performance and Operational Readiness

Somenso is seeking European SMEs and research organisations to jointly develop a proposal under the European Defence Fund, particularly for the EDF-2026-LS-DIS-RA-SMERO-NT call.

The proposed concept, StressShield Defence, focuses on the predictive assessment of acute stress, cognitive overload, fatigue and emerging human-performance degradation in defence and other high-demand operational environments.

The solution combines psychological assessment, cognitive testing and multimodal physiological data to create individual operational-readiness profiles and identify early signs of performance decline. Potential applications include military training, mission preparation, readiness assessment, recovery monitoring, adaptive simulation and human–AI teaming.

Somenso can contribute:

• a patented multimodal stress-assessment methodology;
• expertise in psychophysiology, cognitive assessment and human-performance risk;
• autonomic and cognitive biomarkers, including HRV-based indicators;
• an operational digital assessment platform;
• predictive risk-modelling and personalised baseline profiles;
• experience in applied research and preventive intervention.

We are seeking complementary partners with expertise in:

• wearable ECG, HRV, EDA, respiration, eye-tracking or EEG sensing;
• defence simulation, XR and immersive training environments;
• secure edge AI and real-time signal processing;
• military human factors and operational-performance research;
• adaptive training and human–AI interaction;
• access to defence training, testing or validation environments.

We are particularly interested in smaller European technology companies and research organisations willing to actively co-design the project and contribute to the scientific, technical and operational concept.

Somenso is open to acting as SME coordinator, technology provider or work-package leader for psychophysiological assessment, cognitive readiness and predictive human-performance modelling.