MARLIN Challenge
MARLIN is a structured innovation competition organized by the Cyberagentur in close coordination with the German Navy. The focus is on technological concepts and solutions that are technically sound, implementation-oriented, and suitable for subsequent validation in a realistic test environment.
Participation is open to large and small industrial companies, startups, university and non-university research institutions, and even individuals with relevant technical expertise. Interdisciplinary teams from various institutions are also warmly invited to participate.
All participants must meet the following requirements:
- The (residential) address of participants, companies, or the institution must be located in an EU or NATO member state.
- A SEPA bank account must be available for the payment of prizes and expense reimbursements. Payments outside the SEPA area are not possible.
- All participants must be of legal age.
Certain groups of individuals are also excluded due to security regulations. This includes citizens of countries on the lists of states as defined in Section 13 (1)(17) of the SÜG . Further information can be found in the Terms and Conditions.
Stage 1:
Submission of Brief Concepts
Stage 2:
Evaluation and selection
Stage 3:
Work phase with interim experiments as part of OPEX FCSS 2026
Stage 4:
Pre-test days
Stage 5:
Demonstrations and demo days
Stage 6:
Jury decision
- Access to a clearly structured competition process with real-world relevance
- Exclusive feedback from operational users in the German Navy
- Testing under real-world conditions in a maritime sandbox
- Opportunity for in-depth further development of your own solution
- Financial support and prize money
Important to Know
Any questions?
We have compiled all the important questions and answers about the challenge here.