Call for: European Defence Innovation Scheme BraveTech EU DefTech Forges / bootcamps and other events in support of innovation

Buyer: European Commission, DG DEFIS – Defence Industry and Space, Brussels

Duration: 48 Months

Estimated value excluding VAT: €20.000.000

Deadline for receipt of tenders: 02/02/2026

Detailed characteristics of the purchase

The winner of this call for tenders shall implement EUDIS and BraveTech EU events on behalf of the Commission, whereby the seven tasks for the contractor are described below:

Task 1: Organisation of the DefTech Forges and other events in support of defence innovation (for example, hackathons)

The contractor shall organise events under the EUDIS and BraveTech EU of varying sizes, manage registrations and participation logistics, ensuring accessibility for all attendees, and coordinate all other tasks connected to logistics. The contractor shall be responsible for all organisational, administrative, and technical aspects of the events, including venue arrangements, participant registration, IT support, security, and communication and visibility activities in line with Commission requirements.

The contractor shall develop and propose event themes that align with the priorities of the Commission, design event formats that encourage innovation and collaboration, such as hackathons, DefTech Forges, workshops, competitions or networking sessions. Such events shall be approved by the Commission.

The target audience comprises startups, scaleups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), academic institutions, industry actors, policymakers, and other key stakeholders. Teams of innovators not yet incorporated as a company are also eligible.

Events in support of defence innovation (an example of hackathon): A hackathon is a fast-paced, collaborative event where students, developers, and innovators team up to build software, hardware, or creative solutions around a specific theme or challenge. Participants work intensively to prototype ideas, learn new skills, and compete for prizes, Hackathons aim to foster innovation, networking, and hands-on problem-solving in tech communities.

The contractor shall ensure the organisation of recurrent large-scale EUDIS hackathons. The hackathons shall take place simultaneously in regional locations in different EU Member States and EDF associated countries. The hackathons shall be stimulating events where hackathon teams at different locations can simultaneously co-operate and compete to deliver innovative solutions to the defence industry and end-users.

The contractor shall propose dates for the hackathons, subject to approval by the Commission.

The Commission shall decide on the themes and challenges for each hackathon around which the teams will be invited to develop their ideas, solutions, or prototypes. These themes and challenges shall be within the scope of the EDF categories of action. In due time, and prior to each recurring hackathon, the contractor shall propose ideas for hackathon themes and challenges to the Commission. The contractor shall then provide feedback on this basis and advise on any themes and challenges suggested by the Commission.

The contractor shall, as appropriate, provide the hackathon participants access to prototyping facilities, testing equipment, databases or other resources that can help the participants to mature their ideas, solutions or prototypes.

The contractor and the local organisers shall conduct informative and preparatory online or physical sessions with the hackathon participants, where they can get to know each other, form teams, and prepare their projects. The contractor and local organisers shall make sure that all participants receive required information and training well in advance of the date on which the hackathons take place. A major part of the information and preparatory work shall be conducted before the actual hackathons takes place.

The duration and timing of the week of the hackathons will be detailed by the contracting authority and in the future specific contracts. The hackathons shall take place in the physical places that the local organisers provide. The contractor and local organisers shall ensure that participation from remote locations is facilitated, as far as it is technically feasible. Since many participants participate online before and during the hackathon, the contractor shall support the local organisers to enable them to do efficient matchmaking to form teams, for example by communicating directly with the participants and not only through a webtool, in accordance with relevant rules and regulations.

The contractor shall provide administrative and logistical support to the local organisers such as access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools, communication and promotion material, background material and training for DefTech Forges. The hackathon teams shall receive support during the event such as venue, catering, equipment, business and prototype coaching, ICT tools, technical and defence expertise. The contractor shall also provide background material to official speakers and visitors. The presence of experts/mentors from defence industry and defence end-users are important and shall be ensured by the contractor.

The contractor shall ensure that local organisers have agreed partner contributions with entities in the innovation ecosystem and public sector to support the hackathons. Examples of such contributions: additional financial prizes beyond those awarded by the Commission and described in the Scenario, technical mentoring sessions, access to testing infrastructure if necessary etc. The contractor shall organise an award ceremony to take place at the end of each hackathon edition. Following the hackathons, the contractor shall provide necessary communication and follow-up to the participants and the local organisers.

DefTech Forges: DefTech Forges are intensive, multi-day innovation sprints designed to tackle pressing defence technology challenges. Inspired by the hackathon model, DefTech Forges bring together DefTech Forge teams, from startups and SMEs to individual innovators, to collaboratively develop cutting-edge solutions. By blending existing technologies with fresh ideas, participants address specific thematic challenges defined by EU Member States, Norway, and Ukraine.

DefTech Forges focus on solutions at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 and above, ensuring practical and impactful outcomes. The events are open to a wide range of participants, including startups, scale-ups, mid-caps, and even teams without formal company structures, provided they meet participation requirements.

The contractor shall propose the date, themes and challenges for each DefTech Forge and seek approval of the contracting authority. The contractor shall further organise preparatory activities before each event, including online or in-person session or matchmaking and team formation (if necessary). Furthermore, the contractor and local organisers shall ensure that the participants receive all the required information well in advance. The contractor shall ensure the availability of an online tool for supporting participants during the preparation of the DefTech Forges and to encourage matchmaking and collaboration among different teams.

A call for selection of local organisers shall be organised and managed by the contractor, followed up by evaluation of applications. All the local organisers shall fulfil criteria defined by the contracting authority in each specific contract. Subsequently, a call for participants shall be organised and managed. The contractor shall submit results and supporting documentation of the evaluation processes to the contracting authority for approval. The Contracting authority will award the Commission’s monetary prizes as set out in the Scenario.

The contractor together with the local organisers shall ensure that the participants have access to prototyping facilities, testing equipment, databases or other material and technical resources that can help maturing their ideas, solutions or prototypes. The contractor shall further ensure that local organisers have agreed partner contributions with entities in the innovation ecosystem and public sector to support the DefTech Forges. Examples of such contributions: additional financial prizes beyond those awarded by the Commission and described in the Scenario, technical mentoring sessions, access to testing infrastructure etc. The contractor shall organise an award ceremony to take place at the end of each DefTech Forge. The contractor shall provide necessary communication and follow-up to the participants and the local organisers following each event.

Following each event, selected teams enter a mentoring program, receiving expert guidance to further refine their solutions. Collaboration is actively encouraged, particularly to merge Ukraine’s frontline insights with EU technological expertise. Throughout the process, Teams are supported to identify and develop “game-changing” innovations with the highest potential for real-world impact.

Task 2: Selection of local organisers

The contractor shall engage with local organisers (innovation centres, innovation agencies, universities, etc.) to better activate the local ecosystems, ensure geographical balance and ultimately improve the overall quality of events. Events can be organised in multiple locations around on the EU Member States territory or territory of countries -associated to. Events can be organised simultaneously.

The contractor shall identify and define the technical and organisational requirements for the local organisers of innovation events. In drawing up the list of requirements to be communicated to the local organisers, the contractor shall pay special attention to ensure digital connectivity between the different locations and the capability of the local organisers to host participants in a physical location with all the services needed for their work, to conduct communication and promotion activities under the local organisers’ own responsibility, and for local organisers to tap into the technical communities of participants in the hackathons – in and well beyond the defence community.

Task 3: Creation of uniform activities for the EUDIS BraveTech EU DefTech Forges and other events in support of innovation (for example, defence hackathons), including the selection of participants

The contractor shall ensure that the EUDIS BraveTech EU events are organised in a way that minimizes administrative work and allows the local organisers to focus on communication and promotion activities and on providing support to the participants. For this reason, the contractor shall provide uniform activities for each of the event (e.g. to be used by the local organisers, if relevant) regarding graphic profile, communication, and promotional material, using the Commission’s Corporate Communication Elements of EUDIS. Furthermore, the contractor shall provide background, preparatory material, suitable training material and information to be distributed to the participants. The contractor shall provide local organisers and participants access to a ready-to-use ICT platform to store relevant information and material related to each event. Participants in the DefTech Forge events must be a citizen of one of the EU Member States/Norway and Ukraine, residing in the EU/Norway and Ukraine, and must be adults. The contractor shall identify and propose for the contracting authority approval a procedure for selection of participants, and suitable criteria.

Task 4: Selection of the winners

If an event is designed as a competitive (for example a hackathon or DefTech Forge) and winners need to be selected, a selection board shall be appointed to evaluate the team presentations (pitches) and selects the winner(s). The specific composition of such a board shall be defined in each specific contract but should include Commission representatives. The selection shall be made using the criteria as defined by the contracting authority in each specific contract. The winning teams will receive prizes awarded by the Contracting authority as defined in the Scenario of this Tender Specifications. The contractor and local organisers are free to allocate additional prizes, however, these prizes are not part of the contract and not considered as eligible costs. Such local prizes shall be aligned with the Commission’s

Corporate Communication Elements of EUDIS. The contractor, local organisers and local partners in the innovation ecosystem are also free, as appropriate, to support teams or individuals that did not win any prizes, for example with tutoring, mentoring, or any other innovative support measure.

The contractor shall, in co-operation with the local organisers, follow-up, structure and document all teams and their results in order to prepare them for future matchmaking activities with defence companies and/or investors.

Task 5: Mentoring programme

Events like hackathons or DefTech Forges are organised together with a mentoring programme that is awarded to the winning teams. The contractor shall ensure that the winning teams from each event (the EU-wide pitching and competition) qualifies for such a mentoring programme with selected industry experts, designed to help them advance the development of their solution. A detailed example follows in section 5 – Scenario, Task 5.

The contractor shall develop and implement a plan for recruiting mentors, to be approved by the Commission. The contractor shall recruit mentors with relevant experience for the type of ideas, solutions or prototypes that the teams have developed. The mentors must be a citizen of the EU Norway or Ukraine and reside in the EU Norway or Ukraine. The contractor shall consult the Commission on the selection of mentors. Upon completion of the mentoring, the teams and mentors shall submit reports to the contractor of the mentoring outcome and the activities performed. For mentoring reporting to the Commission, see Task 7 below. The teams of the EU-wide competition shall be invited to present their ideas, solutions or prototypes, for example at various defence events.

Task 6: Develop and implement a comprehensive plan for communication and promotion activities

The contractor shall develop and implement a plan for communication and promotion activities, to be approved by the Commission. The purpose of such a plan is to achieve high awareness of EUDIS BraveTech EU events and ultimately encourage high quality participation from all EU Member States/Norway, and Ukraine. The target groups for the promotion campaign should also include actors inside and well beyond the defence ecosystem. During the promotional phase, the contractor shall organise webinars and similar information sessions with the view to boost the number of applications submitted. The participants shall also be provided with sufficient background information on the defence issues relevant to each hackathon’s themes and challenges.

The contractor shall organise and draft the content of each event’s social media presence, digital media advertising and communication in close collaboration with the Commission DG DEFIS Communication team and rely on existing dissemination channels (DG DEFIS social media accounts, website, and authorized conferencing platforms). The work shall result in drafting advertising content and buying advertising space for communicating and promoting the events across the participating countries where the events take place, and well beyond. The advertising campaign shall be carried out through digital as well as traditional channels, considering the best use of the resources. Effective coordination with DG DEFIS Communication team on such communication activity shall be ensured. The contractor shall enable the local organisers (where relevant) to use the advertising content and paid advertising space. The local organiser’s communication, promotion and advertising effort should leverage the overall communication support provided by the contractor.

The BraveTech EU events shall be advertised as being part of EUDIS. The contractor shall provide a uniform graphic profile and communication material, which uses the Commission’s Corporate Communication Elements of EUDIS. The contractor shall seek approval from DG DEFIS on this in advance. The contractor shall regularly prepare articles and promotional material to present the upcoming themes and challenges, present the most promising ideas, solutions or prototypes developed by the teams, publish articles through the contractor’s or local organisers’ channels, generate positive “earned media” coverage, and provide the material to DG DEFIS Communication team for its approval and use in its communication channels.

Task 7: Monitoring and reporting

The contractor shall ensure full monitoring and reporting of each action to the Commission and propose Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to measure the performance of its activities.

Each report shall include the following information, together with any additional KPIs proposed by the contractor:

• The number and profile of participants (including start-ups, universities, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), mid-cap companies, RTOs, armed forces, defence colleges, etc.) and their country of origin;

• The number and profile of applicants to open calls, including their country of origin;

• A one-page infographic summarising the main benefits, key results, examples and participating teams;

• The result of the satisfaction questionnaire;

• An assessment of each event’s contribution to bridging ecosystems and attracting new talent and skills to the defence sector;

• Proposals for improvement and lessons learned;

• The progress and implementation status of the communication and promotion plan.

Where relevant, the contractor shall provide a report from mentoring activities, which should include:

• A follow-up report from the teams that received mentoring, detailing the evolution of their ideas, solutions or prototypes, and assessing whether they have registered companies or patents, advanced product development, entered into contracts with defence companies or end-users, or engaged in activities under EU, national or international programmes;

• Proposals for improvement and lessons learned from the mentoring programme.

The contracting authority, where relevant, can task the contractor to deliver a final report, summarising multiple activities outlined in each specific contract. This report should include:

• A consolidated follow-up report from all DefTech Forges, including information on teams, detailing the progress of their ideas, solutions or prototypes, including information on company or patent registrations, product development, contracts with defence companies or end-users, and participation in the EU, national or international industrial support programmes;

• Recommendation for improvement and lessons learned from the DefTech Forge and mentoring programme,

• A financial overview (with proof of payments to the winners for each prize awarded by the contracting Authority) and an assessment of participant satisfaction, including feedback from local organisers, DefTech Forge participants and mentored teams.

In addition to the written reports as described above, the contractor shall invite the Commission to participate in progress meetings held regularly, or as otherwise agreed between the Commission and the contractor.