Open Calls

European AI Hackathon Opens Applications For Teams Ready To Scale AI Workloads

by News Editor

Overview

Applications are open for the European AI Hackathon, a hands-on event running from the 6th to 29th October 2026 for teams building AI-driven products and services. The hackathon targets SMEs, startups, industry practitioners and researchers across Europe, giving teams expert support to develop, optimise and scale AI workloads.

The Cyprus connection comes through AI Factory Antenna Cyprus Pharos-CY, coordinated by The Cyprus Institute. Pharos-CY is part of the wider European AI Factory and EuroHPC ecosystem, and is designed to connect local stakeholders, including startups, SMEs, public institutions and researchers, with advanced AI tools, curated datasets and high-performance computing resources.

Benefits

Participants will work with dedicated mentors to accelerate, optimise and scale their AI applications. The hackathon is designed to help teams identify and address data-loading bottlenecks, parallelise training and optimise AI pipelines for faster experimentation and performance gains.

Teams will also gain access to leadership-class compute resources, allowing them to test and improve AI workloads with expert guidance. The event is listed as free of charge for eligible participants.

Who Can Apply

The hackathon is aimed at SMEs, startups, industry practitioners, and researchers developing AI-driven products and services.

The opportunity is particularly relevant for teams that already have an AI project or workload and want to improve performance, scalability, and technical readiness with mentor support.

Criteria

Teams are expected to bring a project they know well and are ready to develop further during the hackathon. Projects brought to the event must have a licence attached and described in the application. The organisers state that permissive open-source licences, including BSD, MIT or Apache 2.0, are preferred because they make it easier to match teams with mentors.

How To Apply

Applications should be submitted through the Open Hackathons platform using an official email address to prove affiliation. The event language is English.

The registration deadline is 31 August 2026 at 23:59. The hackathon schedule includes Day 0 on 6 October, Day 1 on 13 October, and hybrid programme days from 27 to 29 October 2026.

About Pharos-CY

This hackathon is co-organized by Austrian Scientific Computing (ASC), the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS), the Academic Computer Centre Cyfronet AGH (Cyfronet), OpenACC organization, and NVIDIA for AI Factory Austria AI:AT, HammerHAI, Gaia AI Factory and AI Factory Antenna Cyprus Pharos-CY.

Pharos-CY is the AI Factory Antenna of Cyprus, coordinated by The Cyprus Institute. It aims to accelerate the development and adoption of trustworthy, high-impact AI solutions in Cyprus, with focus areas including health, sustainability, and culture and language.

The initiative is also intended to establish a national AI training hub, offering tailored programmes, workshops and hackathons, while helping local stakeholders access AI tools, curated datasets and high-performance computing resources.

EIT RawMaterials Offers Up To €1M For Raw Materials Innovation Projects

by News Editor

EIT RawMaterials has opened its Call for RIS Innovation Projects, offering up to €1 million per project to support innovation across Europe’s raw materials value chain.

The call is aimed at projects developing new technologies, products, services or business models in areas including sustainable mining, processing, exploration, circularity, recycling and material substitution. Projects are expected to run for one to two years.

Funding And Support

Selected projects can receive funding covering up to 70% of eligible project costs, with the required co-funding depending on the project type and Technology Readiness Level.

Innovation projects can receive between €800,000 and €1 million. Selected applicants will also have access to proposal guidance, matchmaking support and EIT RawMaterials’ European network for raw materials innovation.

Who Can Apply

The call is open to startups, SMEs, large companies, universities, research centres, NGOs, government agencies and public institutions in RIS-eligible countries, including Cyprus.

Applications must be submitted by consortia meeting the call’s eligibility requirements. Each consortium must include at least two organisations from different RIS-eligible countries and represent at least two sides of the knowledge triangle: education, research and business.

The lead partner must be based in a RIS-eligible country. Organisations that are not yet partners can contact their regional innovation and knowledge centre for support.

The EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) supports countries and regions with lower innovation performance by providing funding, expertise and networks to strengthen local innovation ecosystems, develop skills and bring new products, services and business models to market.

How To Apply

Applicants should download the call documents, including project templates and evaluation criteria, and prepare a proposal outlining the project’s objectives, expected impact and work plan.

Applications must be submitted through SeedBook. The deadline is Friday, October 16, 2026, at 13:00 CET.

About EIT RawMaterials

EIT RawMaterials supports Europe’s transition towards a green, circular and digital economy by promoting innovation, education and strategic cooperation across the raw materials sector.

Its work focuses on securing raw materials supply, closing material loops and developing new materials solutions.

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