The New Defense Summit is a one-day conference organised by the European Defense Tech Hub (EDTH), held in Berlin as the flagship summit of the Berlin Defense Tech Week. The 2026 edition takes place on 12 July, immediately following the EDTH European Defense Tech Hackathon (9-12 July). The summit brings together founders, engineers, investors, policymakers, and military operators to exchange on European defence innovation, procurement pathways, and startup-to-deployment journeys.
The New Defense Summit is the flagship annual conference of the European Defense Tech Hub (EDTH), a pan-European organisation dedicated to accelerating defence innovation by connecting startups, investors, and policymakers. The summit is a single-day, deliberately small-scale event designed to produce practical outcomes rather than high-profile speeches. In 2026, it is held on 12 July in Berlin as the conclusion of the Berlin Defense Tech Week, which also includes the four-day EDTH European Defense Tech Hackathon (9-12 July). Together these events form a concentrated week of defence innovation activity in Berlin.
The European Defense Tech Hub was founded to fill the gap between Europe's growing political commitment to defence spending and the practical ecosystem infrastructure needed to translate that spending into fielded technology. EDTH runs hackathons, meetups, and field-testing days across European cities (Tallinn, Paris, Warsaw, Munich, London, Berlin documented in 2026), with the New Defense Summit serving as the community's flagship annual gathering. The first New Defense Summit took place in Berlin in 2025; the 2026 edition continues that format with a focus on scaling from prototype to deployed product.
The 2026 New Defense Summit caps a week of activity that begins with the EDTH European Defense Tech Hackathon (9-12 July, Marienpark Berlin). The hackathon brings together 200+ builders from across Europe to work on challenges sourced from frontline partners in Ukraine, the EU, and across NATO. The Demo Day on Sunday 12 July (13:00 pitches, 15:00 award ceremony) serves as the bridge between the hackathon results and the Summit programme. The Summit itself is designed as a one-day event with short pitches, lightning talks, and hands-on workshops. Access to the Demo Day is open to EDTH Community members.
July is a relatively uncrowded slot in the major European defence exhibition calendar, which concentrates on autumn (September-November) for large shows. The Berlin Defense Tech Week fills that summer gap for the startup and investment community, serving founders and investors who cannot travel to Kielce, London, or Paris but need an annual concentration point for European defence tech dealmaking. Berlin's position as a technology startup hub and its proximity to NATO and EU institutions give the event political credibility.
The event is explicitly founder-focused and practitioner-oriented. Core audiences include: defence tech startup founders; engineers and technical practitioners building defence products; venture capital investors active in European defence; procurement officers and programme managers from EU member state militaries and NATO bodies; and policymakers focused on European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS) and SAFE/EDIP mechanisms. The event avoids large prime contractor dominance; the atmosphere is deliberately that of a builder and investor community rather than a traditional defence salon.
The New Defense Summit is structured as a single-day conference with a minimalist format: short pitches and lightning talks (no long keynotes), hands-on workshops, and breakout sessions designed for concrete exchange. The event typically follows the EDTH Hackathon Demo Day on the same or adjacent day, allowing hackathon participants, mentors, and visitors to connect with the summit audience. EDTH Community membership provides access to the Demo Day and summit-adjacent events; the Summit itself has separate registration.
| Summit date | 12 July 2026 |
| Hackathon dates (co-event) | 9-12 July 2026 |
| Hackathon participants | 200+ hackers from across Europe |
| Summit attendance | not disclosed |
| EDTH Community events per year | multiple (Paris, Warsaw, Munich, London, Tallinn, Berlin in 2026) |
The European Defense Tech Hackathon (9-12 July) is a four-day competitive build event where teams of 200+ developers, engineers, and designers work on defence challenges and present results on Demo Day (12 July). The New Defense Summit is a separate conference, also held in Berlin, focused on policy, investment, and startup development. The two events are programmatically linked and overlap on 12 July (Demo Day/Summit).
The event is community-oriented and founder-focused but is not formally closed to established contractors. The culture and format (short pitches, workshops, peer exchange) are most suited to founders, engineers, and investors rather than large-company business development representatives. EDTH Community membership is a prerequisite for many event elements.
EDTH offers a paid community membership (EDTH Unlimited) providing access to all community events for one year, including hackathon demo days, webinars, networking sessions, and the New Defense Summit. An EDTH Investor Network subscription is also available. Membership is managed at community.eurodefense.tech.
Marienpark Berlin is an innovation and event campus in Berlin. The exact address is shared with registered attendees. Berlin is well served by Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) with extensive European connections. The city is also reachable by high-speed rail from Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, and Warsaw. The Marienpark venue is accessible by S-Bahn and U-Bahn.
The European Defense Tech Hub (EDTH) is a pan-European non-commercial hub organisation dedicated to accelerating defence innovation. It was co-founded by Benjamin Wolba and operates through events, a talent platform, and a community subscription model. EDTH runs hackathons and summits across multiple European cities and maintains a newsletter and social media presence (LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/european-defense-tech, X: @Eurodefensetech, YouTube: @EuropeanDefenseTech). The organisation is headquartered at mail@eurodefense.tech; no registered corporate address was disclosed on the website at time of verification.
The New Defense Summit is deliberately anti-keynote: short pitches, workshops, and founders-only roundtables designed to produce decisions, not applause, inside a single day.
The New Defense Summit is accessible primarily through EDTH Community membership. EDTH Unlimited annual subscription and EDTH Investor Network subscription are available at community.eurodefense.tech. Hacker tickets for the Hackathon require an application (approval required). Mentor tickets are invitation-only. Community Visitor tickets for Demo Day access are available to EDTH Community members. Ticket pricing is not disclosed on the public website; it is managed through the EDTH Community platform.
No. The New Defense Summit is a separate event from the hackathon. Community members can attend the Summit and the Demo Day without having participated in the hackathon itself.
Yes. All EDTH events are conducted in English as the pan-European working language.
Yes. The EDTH Investor Network subscription is explicitly designed to connect investors with defence tech founders and hackathon-originated projects. Investors participating in the community can engage with hackathon teams, attend the Demo Day, and access the Summit programme.
| Official website | https://eurodefense.tech/ |
| https://www.linkedin.com/company/european-defense-tech/ | |
| X | https://x.com/Eurodefensetech |
| Register | https://community.eurodefense.tech/ |
| Programme | https://luma.com/eurodefensetech |