5th Test and Evaluation Community Days Conference

Test and Evaluation Community Days conference 2026

The European Defence Agency will hold the Test and Evaluation Community Days conference 2026, from 29 September to 1 October 2026 in Kiel, Germany. The event, now in its 5th edition, will bring together policymakers, Armed Forces, Research and Technology Organisations, academia, industry, test centres and technical experts to examine how Test & Evaluation (T&E) can better support defence readiness and accelerate capability development.

Participation is open to Government, Industry and Research/Academia experts from the EU Member States. Third Countries with an Administrative Arrangement (AA) which are involved in EDA Defence Test and Evaluation activities can also participate in the event.

Under the theme “Strengthening European T&E for AI-Enabled and Autonomous Systems”, discussions will address: lessons from wartime experience to speed up innovation uptake; Test and Evaluation resources in Europe across all domains; challenges in testing autonomous systems; the role of AI in T&E and the validation of AI-enabled systems; the need to attract and train the next generation of T&E experts; and the contribution of T&E to certification and qualification processes, including initiatives such as the Joint Ammunition Qualification (JAQ).

If you wish to present a contribution aligned with the topics of interest, please complete the submission form by 26 June 2026 and send it to TECD2026@eda.europa.eu

The event provides a unique forum to exchange experience, identify T&E gaps and generate synergies across Europe.

Kindly note that registrations close on 21/08/2026.