Bringing bold ideas to the frontline: EUDIS Hackathon Spring Edition Winners Announced

The second edition of the EU Defence Innovation Scheme’s (EUDIS) Defence Hackathon “Rapid Defence Solutions for the Ukrainian Battlefield and Beyond” took place from 9 to 11 May 2025 across eight EU Member States: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Denmark, Czechia, Spain, and Italy. This Hackathon 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. On 11 May, each location announced its winning team, which gained the opportunity to participate in the EUDIS two-month mentorship programme and present their solution at the final pitching competition held on the 9th of July 2025!

At the Hackathon weekend itself…

Over three days, teams collaborated and competed to develop the most promising solutions for EU defence capabilities. In total, 478 Hackers worked on more than 119 different projects. They received keynote speeches from Andrius Kubilius, European Commissioner for Defence and Space; Hanno Pevkur, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Estonia; Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Volodymyr Havrylov, former Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine; and Laura Elise Arvisto from defence startup Galttech. Additionally, participants were supported by numerous speakers, mentors and experts to refine their ideas. Each location hosted exciting local activities and offered prizes for the winning teams, including cash awards, mentorship hours, and a trip to Ukraine to test their solutions in real-life scenarios. 

After two months of mentoring the winners are…

The eight winning teams went through four 6-hour workshops, 35+ mentoring hours with dedicated lead mentors and ad-hoc expertise. At the EU-wide pitching event on July 9^th, the projects were evaluated by a jury comprised of DG DEFIS experts, defence investors, and innovation experts based on four criteria: progress, relevance, team, and innovativeness.

The top three winners of the EUDIS Defence Hackathon 2025 Spring edition 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 Defence (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), using real-time 3D scene reconstruction and geospatial insights from drone data to enhance situational awareness and mission decisions for operational and tactical teams.

The top eight of the EUDIS Defence Hackathon 2025 Spring include:

• DFT Frontier (Denmark), developed a tracker to identify friendly drones on the battlefield, minimizing risk of friendly fire and increasing operating hours.
• 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.
• Battle Field Network (Spain), network of sensors and servers for the battlefield to enhance situational awareness. 

What’s next?

The Autumn edition of the EUDIS Hackathon 2025 is opening to participants soon. Focused on Technologies for Space and Defence with three challenges (protection of space assets, Space for defence, and sovereign aerospace), the next edition promises to deliver cutting-edge solutions to ensure control and resilience across the European space and defence ecosystems. 

The Hackathon will take place across eight locations from 17-19 October 2025. 

Follow our website for the lates updates on this Space-Defence Hackathon: https://eudis-hackathon.eu/.

For media inquiries, partnerships, participant registrations, or additional information, please contact us at contacteudis-hackathon [dot] eu (contact[at]eudis-hackathon[dot]eu).