AI-Cup

AI-Cup is a Bavarian-French start-up initiative to support the future generation of AI entrepreneurs and establish innovative AI start-ups in Europe. It is aimed at students or doctoral candidates from the academic field across Bavaria and France, who can demonstrate not only excellent scientific skills in the field of "Artificial Intelligence" but also have remarkable entrepreneurial skills. Successful teams can receive up to € 95,000 support for growing their ideas into innovative companies.

Big data an AI learning concept in server center

Application for AI-Cup challenge

To apply for the AI-Cup challenge, please use the online form.

General information about the AI-Cup

Are you interested in playing with data and solving real-time problems through AI-based algorithms? Or you are passionate about AI technologies and want to build an AI-based start-up?

If your answer is yes, then the AI-Cup challenge might be an excellent opportunity for you to turn on the competitive spirit and win price money of up to € 95,000 to found your AI start-up.

The topic of the AI-Cup is "AI for a better world". The data science challenge offers three different streams within which to compete:

The challenge is made of two components:

►Scientific Challenge

The eligible candidates will be provided with data sets accompanied by a scientific question. For example, data-sets will include smart meter data from E.ON, gas usage data from Trading Hub Europe and bus ticketing data from DB Regio.

Note: The scientific competition is carried out via a Codalab platform provided by ATOS under the URL codalab.ai-cup.uni-passau.de. You will receive the login details for the Codalab platform after the successful registration here.

At the end of the scientific challenge, the solutions of the participants will be evaluated, and only the teams/candidates with the best solution will be moved to the entrepreneurial challenge.

►Entrepreneurial Challenge

The candidates with the successful scientific solutions also are expected to present a concept (business plan) describing their idea for creating an AI-based start-up. The future start-up has to bring forward "AI for a better world" and support (for example) in the areas of decarbonisation, smart mobility, people's well-being, etc.

Result & reward

As a main result of the AI challenge/competition, up to eight winning teams will be offered mentorship for twelve months along with an average of € 95,000 price money in preparation for their start-up foundation. The future start-ups will need to be established or have a branch in Bavaria.

The AI-Cup is open to students, doctoral researchers, post-docs and other young scientists at universities and non-university research institutions in France and Germany.
Participating students who will complete their studies during the course of the competition or the period of the supporting package (mentorship/funding) may continue to participate; the same applies to doctoral students after their doctorate.
Only pre-founding teams will be eligible for the funding, i.e. their start-up should not exist already. However, the winning teams will have the possibility to found their start-up before their AI-Cup supporting package has expired.
From 9 March to 29 April, you can apply for the AI-Cup challenge using the online form.

For important enquiries, please write to us: ai-cup@uni-passau.de

The AI-Cup official kick-off took place on 23. October 2021.

University of Passau

The AI-Cup is an initiative led by Prof. Harald Kosch (Chair of distributed information systems) and Prof. Michael Granitzer (Chair of data science), in cooperation with the Transfer Centre of the University of Passau and involving the three hubs of the University of Passau: the Science Hub for Europe, the Digital Hub and the sustainable-development hub.

“The University of Passau is very honoured and pleased to be trusted by the Bavarian State Chancellery and the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy to run this unique AI challenge. We are proud also to have BAYFRANCE, Atos and École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay as very close partners for ensuring the AI-Cup will be a success.”

Ulrich Bartosch, President, Harald Kosch, Vice-President

École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay (Research Partner)

Chair of Industrial Data

ATOS (Hosting Partner)

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation. As European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing, Atos provides end-to-end business solutions across industries in 71 countries.

"Atos is a proud partner of the 2022 Bavarian-French AI-Cup. As a European-based company with dual headquarters in Paris and Munich, we see a perfect cultural and business fit. I am particularly happy that our customers E.ON and Trading Hub Europe generously support our challenge with real-life use cases and datasets".

Udo Littke, Head of Atos Central Europe

ATOS Information Technology GmbH

Data Providers

DB Regio AG (Germany)
E.ON (Germany)
Trading Hub Europe GmbH (Germany)
Centre Borelli (France)
The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission - CEA (France)

Other supporting partners

BayFrance (Bavarian-French University Center) at the Technical University of Munich
BayStartUp GmbH
La French Tech
HOCHSPRUNG - The Entrepreneurship Network of Bavarian Universities

If you have any questions, please contact us by email at ai-cup@uni-passau.de.