Event
E.ON Future Makers Challenge
Start Date: July 13, 2026
Closing of Applications:
August 17, 2026
Announce of Results:
October 12, 2026
Location: India
Event Overview
Client Innovation Challenge
E.ON, in collaboration with Infosys and IIT Madras, is launching a pan India innovation challenge to identify and accelerate breakthrough solutions to Europe's most pressing energy infrastructure challenges. This initiative brings together E.ON's deep operational expertise in European energy networks, Infosys's technology and enterprise delivery capability, and IIT Madras's research and entrepreneurship ecosystem to create a structured pathway from idea to real-world deployment.
The programme is designed for students and startups in India with innovative ideas that address real operational problems facing energy networks today. Selected ideas will be validated, prototyped, and developed to be deployed at scale across European and global markets.
Event Description
E.ON Future Makers Challenge
The four challenge themes
Grid Resilience and Physical Protection, IT Security, Robotics & AI for Grid Vigilance and Workforce Safety, and Smart Meter of the Future. Each theme has specific clusters with detailed technical briefs. You may apply to more than one cluster within the same theme.
About E.ON
E.ON is one of Europe's largest energy companies with the business areas of energy networks, energy infrastructure solutions and energy sales. E.ON is actively leading energy’s future – putting their customers first and delivering innovation solutions that help advance the energy transition.
What we are looking for
Simple, robust, and affordable ideas and solutions built for the real world. Ideas that leverage India's frugal engineering strengths — high value with limited resources, constraint-driven design, rapidly deployable. Solutions must have a credible path to EU market relevance and adaptability to European regulatory and infrastructure contexts. Global applicability strongly encouraged.
What winners receive
Up to €80,000 in grants across 4 ventures. IIT Madras lab access, mentorship, Infosys enterprise pilot opportunities, and IIT Madras Energy Consortium Ventures membership.
The programme journey
15 months across three phases. Phase 1 — Idea Selection (July–October 2026): screening, jury review, and an in person event in Bangalore selecting up to 4 winners. Phase 2 — Validation: prototype development with Infosys & IIT Madras lab access and mentorship. Phase 3 — Deployment: real-world rollout supported by E.ON's network and Infosys client introductions.
Eligibility Criteria
Academic Eligibility (Students)
Must be enrolled in an accredited Indian college or university (UG, PG, or PhD).
Business Eligibility (Startups)
Must be legally incorporated in India with a valid DPIIT registration or Certificate of Incorporation.
Problem Statements
Problem Statement Description:
As renewable energy and distributed assets reshape Europe's grids, ensuring resilience against physical threats — from extreme weather to deliberate sabotage — is one of the defining infrastructure challenges of our time.
Solutions are sought across three interconnected phases of the resilience curve: hardening infrastructure before incidents occur, detecting threats and anomalies in real time, and enabling rapid recovery when disruptions happen.
This challenge invites entries across three clusters:
- Cluster 1 — Prevention and Physical Protection
- Cluster 2 — Detection and Surveillance
- Cluster 3 — Mitigation and Emergency Response
Problem Statement Description:
Europe's energy grid relies on an increasingly interconnected layer of IT systems — from core grid operations to millions of customer-owned devices like EV chargers, heat pumps, and smart inverters. As this attack surface expands, so does the risk: vulnerabilities in protection systems go undetected, and compromised customer assets can be coordinated to destabilise grid conditions at scale.
Solutions are sought that automate and harden core grid IT defences, and that protect customer-owned energy assets against coordinated exploitation and systemic cyber-physical risk.
This challenge invites entries across two clusters:
- Cluster 4 — IT Security: Improvement of Protection Systems
- Cluster 5 — IT Security: Protection Schemes for Customer-Based Assets.
Problem Statement Description:
Europe's energy networks are entering a phase of unprecedented operational stress. Grid expansion, renewable integration, and rising reliability expectations collide with structural constraints — making vigilance, safety, and resilience prerequisites for secure network operations. At the same time, robotics and Physical AI are enabling intelligent machines to perceive, reason, and act within complex physical environments, offering a direct pathway to address these challenges while augmenting a shrinking technical workforce.
Solutions are sought that deploy autonomous systems for persistent grid monitoring and resilience, and targeted automation that reduces human exposure to high-risk field tasks.
This challenge invites entries across two clusters:
- Cluster 6 — Fortifying Grid Safety, Vigilance, and Resilience
- Cluster 7 — Targeted Automation for Workforce Safety and Augmentation.
Problem Statement Description:
Germany's energy transition mandates large-scale rollout of smart meters — yet the core challenge is threefold: meeting strict technical and regulatory requirements, achieving mass-market affordability and scalability, and driving customer acceptance. Many consumers perceive smart meters as intrusive, overly technical, or lacking clear personal value — making compliance and low cost insufficient without a simple, trustworthy, and genuinely delightful customer experience.
Solutions are sought for a hardware and software concept that is low-cost, fully regulation-compliant, and delivers privacy-respecting experiences that drive sustained customer engagement.
This challenge invites entries across one cluster:
- Cluster 8 — Smart Meter of the Future.
Incentives
- E.ON will provide Grant funding for up to 4 selected ideas to the extent of up to 80K EUR in total.
- The top 2 ideas from Phase 2 will be supported for development into real-world solutions or products in Phase 3.
- Mentorship – Infosys & IIT Madras to provide Innovation & Entrepreneur mentorship to the selected ideas.
- Validation Infrastructure access – Selected ideas will be supported by providing Infosys & IIT Madras Lab for prototyping, research infrastructure & deep tech expertise.
- Market Access – Selected ideas will be supported by Infosys to get early client pilot projects.
- Part of IIT Madras – Selected ideas will get the opportunity to be part of the IIT Madras Energy Consortium Ventures.
Next Steps
Phase 1Scouting of Brilliant Minds (3 months)
- Challenge Launch
- Screening & Evaluation
- In person event for selection
Phase 2Piloting of Ideas that Drive Innovation (6 months)
- Prototyping & Pilot
- Business Case
Phase 3Integrating and Scaling Solutions (6 months)
- Implementation
- Scale-up and Integration
About us
Infosys is a Global Leader in Next-Generation Digital Services and consulting. We enable clients in 59 countries to navigate their digital transformation.
With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer clients, in 59 countries, as they navigate their digital transformation powered by cloud and AI. We enable them with AI-first core, empower the business with agile digital at scale and drive continuous improvement with always-on learning through the transfer of digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. We are deeply committed to being a well-governed, environmentally sustainable organization where diverse talent thrives in an inclusive workplace.
