NORDIC RADAR SOLUTIONS APS

Their core work

Nordic Radar Solutions ApS develops radar-based detection systems for airport runway and airspace safety, focused on eliminating three distinct hazard categories: Foreign Object Debris (FOD) on runways, bird and wildlife strikes, and unauthorized drone incursions near aircraft. Their flagship product, FODBASA, is a single integrated system addressing all three threats simultaneously — a rare combination in the airport safety market. The company followed the classic SME Instrument trajectory, completing a Phase 1 feasibility study in 2018 before securing nearly €1.5M in Phase 2 development funding to build and validate the full product. Based in Egå, Denmark, they operate as an independent technology developer maintaining full control of their IP and product roadmap.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

The company's technical focus remained consistent — radar-based airport safety — but the threat scope expanded meaningfully between Phase 1 (2018) and Phase 2 (2019). The original feasibility study addressed FOD and bird strikes; by the time they secured Phase 2 funding, drone detection had been added to the system requirements, reflecting the rapid emergence of UAV-related airport incidents as a regulatory and operational concern across European aviation. No earlier H2020 activity exists to compare against, so the visible evolution is entirely contained within this two-project SME Instrument arc.

They are expanding from passive runway safety into active airspace threat detection, positioning their platform directly in the fast-growing market for drone countermeasures at civil airports — a regulatory priority under EASA and national aviation authorities.

How they like to work

Nordic Radar Solutions ran both H2020 projects as sole coordinator with no recorded consortium partners — the standard configuration for SME Instrument applications, which are designed for single companies developing their own product. This means they are self-directed technology developers rather than consortium builders, and any future collaboration would likely be as a specialist technology supplier or subcontractor rather than a large-team co-investigator. Working with them means engaging a focused company with a single, well-defined product rather than a broad research agenda.

No consortium partners are recorded across either project, consistent with the SME Instrument model where companies apply and execute independently. Their collaboration network within H2020 is effectively non-existent on paper, though their product development almost certainly involved end-user engagement with airports or aviation authorities not captured in CORDIS data.

What sets them apart

Nordic Radar Solutions is one of the few SMEs to have successfully navigated the full SME Instrument Phase 1 → Phase 2 pipeline for airport safety radar, which signals both technical credibility and commercial viability as assessed by EU evaluators. Their FODBASA system is differentiated by combining three distinct hazard categories (debris, wildlife, drones) in a single radar platform — most competitors address these threats with separate systems. For consortium builders in aviation safety, transport infrastructure, or border/perimeter security, they bring a validated radar product rather than a research prototype.

Highlights from their portfolio

• FODBASA (Phase 2)
  EUR 1.49M Phase 2 development grant — the largest single award in their portfolio — funded full product development of an integrated runway and airspace safety radar covering FOD, bird strikes, and drone threats simultaneously.
• FODBASA (Phase 1)
  The Phase 1 feasibility study that successfully qualified the concept for Phase 2 funding, demonstrating that the FODBASA system passed EU commercial viability and technical readiness review.