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.
Follow THE FUTURE on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and Telegram
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.
