Startups and innovators in military and civilian technologies can register for the EUDIS Hackathon, funded by the European Commission

Startups and innovators can now register for the EUDIS Hackathon (Autumn Edition), a European innovation event in the field of dual-use technologies (with both civilian and military applications).

The hackathon is part of the European Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS), funded by the European Commission. EUDIS is an initiative of the European Defense Fund, a program designed to strengthen digital innovation in the defense sector across the EU, with a budget of nearly €7.3 billion for the period 2021–2027.

The event, organized by the Romanian Tech Startups Association (ROTSA) as the local partner, will take place physically in Bucharest on October 17–19, with an online option available during the same dates.

The hackathon is primarily aimed at young innovators (students and early-career professionals) who can create solutions to enhance European security and contribute to strengthening the EU’s technological sovereignty.

Eligibility:
  • Citizens of the EU, Norway, and Ukraine
  • Startups, established teams, or individual participants (who can later form teams)
  • Creators of existing solutions or prototypes, provided they match one of the proposed challenges

Registration is open until Friday, October 10th, via this link.

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EUDIS Hackathon 2025 – Autumn Edition Challenges

The 2025 Autumn Edition will revolve around one main theme, divided into three specific challenges. The overarching theme is how Europe’s space ecosystem can support defense missions and operations, while also contributing to the security of the space domain.

  • Protection of space assets – Identifying, analyzing, and countering threats in space. This challenge addresses the rise of adversaries developing anti-satellite weapons, orbital jamming devices, and cyberattacks, which threaten Europe’s space assets (navigation, communications, and Earth observation).
  • Using Space for Defense – Developing space-based solutions to support military missions and operations, including Earth observation, positioning, navigation and timing, secure communications, missile early-warning systems, and multi-source data collection and processing.
  • Sovereign Aerospace – Autonomous drones (military and civilian), aircraft, and weapon systems are redefining aerospace. This challenge calls for solutions such as automated countermeasures for detecting and neutralizing hostile or unknown aerial objects, fiber-optic drone recognition and neutralization in ambush scenarios, reusing existing space hardware and software for military aerospace applications (launch, authorization, trajectory calculation), and developing hardware/software for drone fleet management enabling large-scale autonomous flight and decision-making for intelligence gathering and aerial support.

    • The EUDIS Hackathon builds on ROTSA’s previous initiatives in digital innovation for defense and the space sector, carried out in partnership with Techcelerator, through projects such as NASA Space Apps Challenge – the largest hackathon in the world – and DIANA, NATO’s accelerator for civilian and military solutions.

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    The consortium formed by ROTSA and Techcelerator has been selected to implement EUDIS activities in Romania, as part of a European competition, alongside a community of local agencies in the defense and security sectors. 

    “Through the EUDIS Hackathon, innovators from across Europe – and now from Romania – can tackle challenges in the defense and space sectors. Participants will work on cutting-edge topics, creating solutions for autonomous systems, secure communications, energy resilience, cyber defense, and advanced aerospace technologies. These are all challenges that can enhance the security and technological advancement of the European Union. In Romania, through our pioneering work in dual-use technologies, we aim to strengthen the defense tech sector and improve local innovators’ access to clients in this field. Additionally, we seek to consolidate the involvement of national agencies that have already supported us, to better leverage the potential of Romania’s technology startup ecosystem and R&D innovators, addressing the growing need for EU border security – an area where Romania plays a key role in the Black Sea region,” said Cristian Dascălu, President of the Romanian Tech Startups Association (ROTSA), organizer of the EUDIS Hackathon in Romania.

    The European Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS) is a program under the European Defence Fund (EDF) designed to boost defense innovation across the EU. Its main goal is to lower entry barriers for startups and innovators in the defense sector. EUDIS supports innovators through the entire development process – from concept and validation to launch and scaling.

    The European Defence Fund, which includes EUDIS, has a budget of nearly €7.3 billion for 2021–2027 and supports projects that encourage collaboration between SMEs, large companies, and research organizations within the EU. Funding aims to drive innovation in next-generation, interoperable defense technologies with a significant impact on European defense capabilities and overall security.

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