Apply
Search

EUDIS Hackathon 2025 Spring Edition EU-Wide Pitching Competition Winners

The EUDIS Hackathon 2025 Spring edition brought together Europe’s brightest minds to tackle pressing challenges in defence and security.

This second edition of the EUDIS Hackathon themed “Rapid Defence Solutions for the Ukrainian Battlefield and Beyond” was held from 9 to 11 May 2025 across eight EU Member States: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Denmark, Czechia, Spain, and Italy. Estonia served as the central hub, coordinating all hackathon activities over the course of three days.

Focused on supporting Ukraine amid the ongoing war by developing prototypes, ideas, and solutions for military battlefield applications; for the first time, the hackathon also welcomed participants from Ukraine, fostering collaboration between Europe and Ukraine for EU and Ukrainian defence and security.

EU-Wide Live Pitching Competition – July 9 2025

The EUDIS Hackathon provides a unique opportunity for participants—including startups, researchers, and technology experts—to develop cutting-edge solutions addressing key defence challenges. The winners of the Spring edition, announced in May 2025, completed a two-month intensive mentoring programme and took part in an EU-wide live pitching competition on July 9, 2025.

This was an exciting next step for the top teams to showcase their innovative solutions, compete against other top participants across Europe, and potentially secure further EU recognition and awards. In 3 minutes, the teams gave a live pitch, followed by 6 minutes of Q&A from the Judges.

The top three winners of this EU-wide pitching competition will attend a major defence, startup, or innovation event to showcase their solutions to industry leaders and investors. The European Commission’s DG DEFIS will promote these projects, supporting networking and potential funding or partnerships to help further develop their ideas.

Pitching competition winners of the EUDIS Hackathon 2025 Spring edition

Eight exceptional teams showcased their cutting-edge solutions to Europe’s most pressing defence challenges. The top three winners who stood out during the pitching competition are:

  • 18°C Thermal (Poland): camouflage and defensive equipment against thermal cameras used on the battlefield, which pose an increasing threat on the front lines.
  • Harlequin Defense (Lithuania): building an autonomous and modular counter-FPV drone system that detects, tracks, and ultimately shoots down FPV drones attacking the protected troops and assets.
  • AEREUS (Germany): a tactical and operational data intelligence platform where raw data chaos is turned into clear, evolving, and robust scene understanding, powered by AI-native approaches.

The five other finalists who delivered outstanding contributions and pushed the boundaries of defence innovation include:

  • BFT Frontier (Denmark): A heavy-lift VTOL drone that enables rapid, autonomous resupply across mined terrain, mud-locked zones, and enemy-controlled areas—minimizing helicopter losses and extending operational reach deep into hostile environments
  • SPECTRE (Italy): a next-generation acoustic stealth technology for multirotor UAVs operating in hostile environments.
  • EchoSentinel (Latvia): lightweight, cost-effective battlefield intelligence system designed to enhance tactical situational awareness by detecting and analysing audio signatures of vehicles and drones.
  • Aegis Medic (Czech Republic): offline life-saving care using a small LLM.
  • Battlefield Network (Spain): network of sensors and servers for the battlefield to enhance situational awareness.

Congratulations to all teams for their vision, collaboration, and impact on shaping the future of EU defence.

Background

The EUDIS Hackathon is not just about a competition—it is about shaping the future of European defence innovation. The EUDIS Hackathons and Mentoring Programme offer a unique platform to engage with the European defence sector, connect with peers and experts, and leverage knowledge to tackle current defence challenges. These two annual hackathons take place simultaneously in eight locations across Europe, featuring the same set of challenges and timeline to:

  • Promote skills development and attract new talents to the defence sector.
  • Foster connections between different communities, such as linking young researchers and innovators with defence industry experts and end-users like the Armed Forces.
  • Provide an environment for creating innovative defence ideas and solutions, supporting the needs of EU Member States, Norway, and the EDF, contributing to a more competitive and innovative European defence industry.
  • Increase awareness of EUDIS initiatives and programmes.

The Autumn edition of the EUDIS Hackathon 2025 Local Organisers will soon be announced. Focused on the theme of “Technologies for Space and Defence” with three challenges (protection of space assets, Space for defence, and Sovereign Aerospace), this edition promises to deliver solutions to ensure control and resilience across the European space ecosystem.

Get Involved

For more information on Europe’s leading defence innovation hackathon and to register as a participant for the Autumn edition, visit the EUDIS Hackathon website: https://eudis-hackathon.eu/ .

The hackathon is organized by Tehnopol in collaboration with Civitta, Cecoforma, and CARSA.

Join the program!