The qualification process for the eleventh edition of the prestigious space and robotics competition European Rover Challenge (ERC) has ended. The list of teams that will compete in the grand finals on the AGH campus on August 29-31, 2025 has been announced. Among them were as many as 5 teams from Poland. The event has been attracting the attention of the scientific and technological communities from around the world for a decade, providing an innovative platform for the development of the competencies of the future for a new generation of engineers. The organizer of the event is the European Space Foundation, while the co-organizer is the AGH University of Krakow.

At the end of August, the eyes of the world of science and new technologies will turn to Krakow, which will once again host the European Rover Challenge, the largest international competition of Martian robots held in the on-site and remote formula.

The ERC is a three-day event, open free to the public, which will once again bring together the international scientific, educational and business communities. It will feature an interdisciplinary conference with experts from global space industry organizations, including ispace Europe, the International Astronautical Federation and the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, among others.

‘The European Rover Challenge is first and foremost a platform that integrates science, technology and education on a practical level. Every year we see how much potential there is in young engineers from all over the world, and this is what we want to support. In each edition, we pay special attention to the realism of tasks inspired by real planetary missions, so that participants can compete while developing the competencies they will need in the future in the space sector. This year we will also introduce a new astrobiology competition. It will consist of detecting and verifying whether life and the chemical compounds necessary for its origin could have once existed in a given place’, explains Marcin Wygachiewicz, chief judge of the ERC competition, PSPA.

The on-site formula of the event will feature 25 rovers selected from 102 submitted teams. In addition, they will be joined by teams in the remote competition formula. Young engineers and scientists from Poland, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, India, Egypt or Turkey, among others, will compete. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that as many as five teams will represent Polish technical universities, confirming the strong position of domestic technical education on the international stage.

Finalists will present designs for autonomous Mars rovers capable of performing complex tasks inspired by real planetary missions. The competition will take place on a specially designed track – the Marsyard – with an area of nearly 900 m², whose topography faithfully reproduces the geological conditions of the Martian canyon Valles Marineris.

‘As a co-organizer of the European Rover Challenge, we are proud to support an initiative that integrates academic and technological communities from around the world. Such events are an excellent opportunity to put knowledge and skills to practical test in real-world settings, while building a space for collaboration across borders, language and disciplines. We are pleased that the AGH campus can be a place where future technologies are developed and the next generation of engineers is shaped’, says prof. Jerzy Lis, Rector of AGH in Krakow.

The ERC 2025 competition continues a long-standing mission to popularize science and support young talent in the discipline of aerospace engineering. Over the past decade, the event has gained an international reputation and is recognized as one of the largest of its kind in the world. Its success is due to the commitment of the organizers and partners, as well as the unparalleled passion and determination of hundreds of young engineers who come to Poland every year to test their designs and gain experience at a global level.

The full list of teams qualified for the finals is available on the event’s website at: https://roverchallenge.eu/teams/.

The event is organized by the European Space Foundation and co-organized by the AGH University in Krakow. The regional partner of the event is the Malopolska Region, and the City of Krakow serves as the Host City. Among the partners of this year’s ERC are: Polish Space Professionals Association (PSPA), Mars Society Polska, Polish Space Agency, MathWorks, DPS Software, Polish Tourism Organization, Poland Convention Bureau and the Business in Malopolska Center. The event is held under the honorary patronage of the Minister of Science, the Minister of Education, the Marshal of the Malopolska Region – Łukasz Smółka, and the Mayor of the City of Krakow – Aleksander Miszalski.

The project is financed with funds from the state budget granted by the Minister of Education and Science under the ‘Social Responsibility of Science II’ Program.

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