The people and institutions building this with us.

You are a researcher, founder, board director, open-source maintainer, or technical community builder with a genuine following in the European AI community. You know who the serious builders are - the PhDs writing foundational code, the engineers at hyperscalers quietly preparing for something bigger, the researchers who have been thinking about European AI infrastructure for years. What you have is reach and credibility that no institutional campaign can replicate.

Who qualifies

• Recognised contributor to the European or global AI technical community (active researcher, founder, member of a board of directors, open-source maintainer, community builder, or technical communicator with verifiable public presence)
• Demonstrable reach to or network within SPRIND’s AI target applicant population – whether into the builder community (frontier AI researchers, ML engineers, deep tech founders) or into adjacent networks of investors and public institutions with a stake in European AI
  Each is backed to raise up to €1 bn to launch a frontier lab that can shift Europe’s AI trajectory.
• No active commercial conflict of interest with SPRIND’s AI challenges or its funded teams
• Commitment to actively engage their network on behalf of the program – during the application window and at key milestones throughout the challenge.

What you bring

A single post, newsletter, or direct introduction from someone with real credibility travels further than any press release. Next Frontier AI needs you to surface the right teams before the application deadline – and, throughout the challenge, to open doors to investors and institutions that the program cannot reach through formal channels alone.

What you get

Named ambassador status on this page and in program communications. Early access to jury decisions, lab selection outcomes and technical directions before public announcement - positioning you as an authoritative voice in the conversation about Europe's AI future. Opportunities to co-host or speak at SPRIND’s AI team-building events and community gatherings across European cities.

How the advocate program works 

You represent a national ministry, public agency, EU institution, or publicly mandated research infrastructure body with an active mandate in AI, digital sovereignty or deep-tech innovation. You understand that building frontier AI companies in Europe is not purely a technical or financial challenge - it is a political one. The capital mobilisation, data access regulatory environment and procurement signals that serious AI labs need all require active alignment at national and EU level.

Who qualifies

• National government ministry, public agency, EU institution, national innovation agency, or publicly mandated research infrastructure body
• Active mandate related to AI, digital sovereignty, innovation or deep-tech at national or EU level
• Headquartered within EU, EFTA or UK
• Designated representative with authority to engage in strategic partnerships on behalf of the institution

What you bring

The structural conditions for training and deploying powerful AI in Europe - accessible compute, usable public datasets, regulatory clarity, credible early procurement - cannot be created by the labs alone. You are the political counterpart to the technical teams. Without your alignment of national and EU instruments, the labs cannot be built at the pace and scale required.

What you get

Early visibility into the capabilities being developed across the funded labs, before public announcement. A concrete program to point to when making the case for European digital sovereignty - one that produces companies, products and pilots, not position papers. Structured bi-annual roundtables with lab teams and other public institution representatives to align on the policy and regulatory support the labs need.

You run or represent a serious investment firm with an active mandate in deep tech, AI or frontier technology. You have been watching European AI for years - the talent, the research, the repeated failure to translate it into globally competitive institutions. You understand that the structural problem has not been ideas; it has been the absence of billion-euro growth rounds at the right moment. Next Frontier AI is explicitly engineered to change that. Your early signal of intent is part of what makes it work.

Who qualifies

• Professional investment firm with AUM of at least €100M (venture/growth) or €500M (private equity, large family office, or sovereign wealth fund)
• Active investment mandate covering deep tech, AI, or frontier technology - not exclusively software/SaaS
• Realistic capacity and stated strategic interest in participating in rounds of €50M+ in European frontier AI companies
• Geographically active in Europe or with a documented European deep-tech investment thesis

What you bring

The most persistent structural failure in European deep tech has been the absence of follow-on capital at scale. Without investors committed to the €1 billion scale-up rounds for the winning labs, the initiative risks producing well-funded seedlings that then stall. Your early engagement fundamentally changes the probability distribution of outcomes.

What you get

A structurally de-risked entry point: the riskiest phase of company-building - team formation, early technical validation, governance structuring - is entirely publicly funded and selected by a rigorous, multi-stage jury. By the time you are invited in, you are evaluating two years of experiments, benchmarks, pilots and operational execution - not a story. Clean entry at the first institutional round, before valuations can go vertical. First-mover position in a nascent but critical asset class, before it is fully legible to the broader market.

You lead or represent a large European enterprise with a genuine frontier AI use case - not a generic IT procurement need, but a real problem where next-generation AI capabilities would change what is possible in your industry. You are thinking about what it means to depend entirely on US and Chinese AI stacks for your most critical processes. And you are interested in a credible European alternative you can help shape from the start.

Who qualifies

• European-headquartered (or majority European operations), with annual revenue above €500M OR demonstrably strategic role in an AI-relevant sector
• Concrete industrial or commercial use case for frontier AI - not limited to generic IT procurement
• Capacity and willingness to engage in at least one of the following: structured multi-year pilot agreement with a funded lab; consideration of co-investment in scale-up rounds; or contribution of domain data or evaluation environments
• No direct competitive conflict with the primary business of SPRIND’s AI challenge teams

What you bring

Large European corporates occupy a position in this ecosystem that no other stakeholder can fill: simultaneously potential customers, co-investors, data contributors and domain experts. For the labs to become credible enterprises - not just well-funded research teams - they need exactly what you can provide.

What you get

Early and deep access to European frontier capabilities being built for enterprise use cases - before valuations reflect the full strategic value of that access. Direct influence over lab development through structured involvement in evaluation criteria, safety requirements and integration architectures. A strategic hedge against non-European lock-in, with equity exposure to potentially transformative assets at the most attractive entry point: after public de-risking, before valuations go vertical.