EUDIS Hackathon sparks innovation in Europe’s defence sector

The first EU Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS) hackathon, themed ‘Digital in Defence,’ unfolded with success during the weekend 31 May to 2 June. This new and unprecedented for the EU initiative brought together six visionary local hackathon hosts Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, and Poland, fostering the birth of innovative ideas and solutions in the defence sector. The event contributed to reinforce the innovativeness of Europe’s defence sector with a focus on the challenges ‘Subsea Infrastructure Protection’, ‘Improving Situational Awareness’, and ‘Cybersecurity in Defence’.

Co-operation breaks barriers

A hackathon is a competitive innovation event where its participants (often students or start-ups) with different competences, such as technical, business, military and legal, form teams co-operate and build solutions together towards a specified challenge. The solutions could come into reality in the shape of services, prototypes, applications, or hardware devices. The teams are supported by mentors and experts from the field of the challenge concerned, and from the business and innovation ecosystem. The event is usually held during a weekend, and in the end of the weekend, a jury of experts selects a winner according to pre-defined communicated criteria.  

The EUDIS hackathon is one of the outcomes of the EU Commission’s efforts through EUDIS on creating a more innovative EU defence technological and industrial base. The hackathon teams, mentors and experts from the EU Member States Ministries of Defence, and representatives from the innovation and business community from EU Member States and Norway, came together to address the commonly shared challenges described above.

Intense hackathon weekend of innovation

The EUDIS hackathon weekend kicked off by the Director for Defence Industry François Arbault, at the EU Commission’s Directorate-General Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS), on Friday 31 May, setting the stage for an intense weekend of innovation and skills development. Participants engaged in mentoring sessions with the mentors and experts to advance their innovative solutions.  

And the winners are…

On Sunday 2 June, six winners were selected, one from each local hackathon host – Cefriel (Italy), Demokritos (Greece), Design Terminal (Hungary), Sopra Steria (Belgium), Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania) and Krakow Technology Park (Poland) – by a distinguished jury comprising of defence and business mentors, whose invaluable contributions made the event possible. The local winners showcased their innovative projects. 

• EUnify (Belgium), with a solution that combines data from citizens and data collected from sensors to improve situational awareness in military and civilian crisis situations. 
• Superlabs (Greece) is developing solutions to improve the identification of terrorist threats in the digital environment. 
• Fraudshield (Hungary) provides a comprehensive cybersecurity solution to defend against phishing. 
• Euri Swarm (Italy) develops a platform for cost-effective drone swarms to have information to minimize losses. 
• Eye of Lizdeika (Lithuania) provides a quick on-demand security sensor network that can be used in both civil and military applications. 
• Lastly, Aqua Hub (Poland) provides a docking station that deploys drones, reducing costs while patrolling high-value subsea infrastructure.

On 5 June, a virtual EU Wide Competition took place where the six winners pitched their solutions to a jury, selecting the top three teams who advanced to a six-month mentoring program. The finalists, Aqua Hub (Poland), Superlabs (Greece), and EUnify (Belgium), impressed the jury with their defence innovations. Their success highlights the potential for co-operative problem-solving and sets the stage for future EUDIS Hackathons. These top three winning teams have on 12 June entered a Mentoring Programme of six months aiming at developing their solutions to meet defence user needs head-on. The three runners-up have entered a two-month Mentoring Programme. The teams will have mentoring sessions with selected defence industry experts designed to help them advance the development of their solutions. The top three winning teams will also be invited to present their ideas, solutions or prototypes at a big technology or defence event, when having completed their programme. 

A bright future for EU defence

This hackathon has demonstrated the impact of co-operation and the potential of innovation. The strong team spirit, skills needed, co-operation, and willingness to develop knowledge and share expertise among participants from diverse backgrounds have contributed to enhance EU defence innovation. The success of this first edition sets a promising precedent for the next EUDIS Hackathon taking place in Spring 2025, which is expected to have further local hackathon hosts and participants and create more innovative solutions to address the EU’s rapidly evolving defence needs, inspiring a brighter future and bring talented skills to the EU defence industry.