AI Entrepreneurs Lab

Identifier: HORIZON-EIT-2025-KIC-IBA-INBC Status: Open Submission procedure: single-stage Opening date: 2026-09-07 Deadline: 2026-10-21 Budget: €50,000 An intensive programme for the most promising early-stage talent in AI and robotics. Up to 15 people join a cohort for a hands-on bootcamp that turns research and raw ideas into the foundations of a company. It runs across three cities in five days, ends with a Demo Day, and awards up to five prizes of €10,000 to the teams that show the strongest evidence of a real venture. The Lab is part of the EU ApplyAI Strategy and is operated by 28DIGITAL under the EIT Community AI & Robotics. It exists to move Europe’s best technical talent from the lab bench to the founder’s seat. Master’s and PhD students and graduates with strong AI or robotics ideas and the drive to build a business around them. You can apply solo or as a team of up to two, in your personal capacity, whether you have an early concept or a recently incorporated startup at pre-launch stage. You’re a strong fit if you: • Have an idea where AI or robotics is genuinely central, not a label bolted onto something else; • Can point to a real problem, a credible technical direction and a plausible path to market; • Are working in Core AI and Robotics: AI agents and autonomous systems, edge AI and AI infrastructure, robotics intelligence, trustworthy and secure AI, foundation and generative models, or industrial AI deployment; • Are ready to test your idea in public - with customers, founders and investors - in five fast days. What will you get? • A cohort, not a classroom. A place in a 15-strong cohort of Europe’s most promising applied-AI founders. • Hands-on mentoring. Founder readiness, customer discovery, commercial-model testing, pitch development and investor readiness — led by people who’ve founded, scaled and deployed. • Real market contact. Direct feedback from mentors, startups, corporates and investors, plus introductions that outlast the week. • A shot at €10,000. Up to five prizes of €10,000, awarded on merit at Demo Day to fund concrete venture progress. • Support to be there. Travel and accommodation support for the Top 15 may be provided, subject to programme rules and budget.