The selection stage of the Minesight Innovation Challenge — an international engineering competition dedicated to excavation, one of the most difficult, hazardous, and resource-intensive stages of humanitarian demining — has concluded. The jury, made up of technology and mine action experts, has named five finalist teams, each of which will receive a grant of up to $100,000 to develop a prototype. They are: AUTOGENBOT (USA), Kaban Diger (Ukraine), Badger (Ukraine), Water-Jet Excavation for Mine Exposure (WExMEx) (Norway), and ACTIVE ALLIANCE LLC (Ukraine).

The team whose solution performs best in the final field test will receive an additional prize. In total, the winner may receive up to $200,000.

More than 90 teams from 10 countries took part in the Challenge, with the largest number of proposals coming from Ukrainian developers and manufacturers. The submitted concepts spanned a broad range of innovative solutions — from mechanical, pneumatic, and water-jet systems to combined approaches — all designed to remotely expose and identify various types of buried objects across different soil types.

According to Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine Ihor Bezkaravainyi, the strong response from Ukrainian teams reflects the sector's readiness to put modern, innovative solutions into practice. "We received a powerful response from around the world, but it is telling that most applications came from Ukrainian developers. It means that the technology community inside the country is ready to take on the hardest demining challenges. Our task now is to give these five teams everything they need to turn their ideas into solutions that work in the field and save deminers' lives as quickly as possible," he comments.

Excavation is the final stage after a signal is detected, requiring direct contact between the deminer and a potentially explosive object. Today this process is performed largely by hand and takes up to 60–80% of a deminer's time, making it one of the least safe and most resource-intensive steps. The Challenge is focused on improving the speed and safety of excavation while reducing its cost.

Applications were assessed by practitioners and experts in humanitarian demining. They included representatives of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), Humanitarian Demining LLC ("Humanitarna Bezpeka"), UADamage, mine action consultants affiliated with Norwegian People's Aid, and specialists from the Interregional Centre for Humanitarian Demining and Rapid Response of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU).

Maryna Petrychenko, Director of the Serhiy Prytula Humanitarian Foundation, highlighted the Challenge's practical focus: "Competition was fierce, and behind each of the nearly one hundred applications is someone's time, expertise, and genuine desire to help. The five finalists came through the most demanding selection, but the real work is only beginning. For our Foundation, it is essential that these prototypes do not stay on paper but reach the Ukrainian fields waiting to be cleared and returned to life."

The selected teams will work for roughly six months, with access to a test site, expert mentorship, and funding to build prototypes that they will prepare for the final test. Based on the results, the jury will name the winning team, which will receive an additional $100,000 prize.

Minesight Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Dmytro Martynovych emphasized the importance of technological diversity among the solutions. "The finalists' solutions span very different engineering approaches. That diversity is exactly what we need, because soils and the types of explosive objects differ significantly. Over the coming months, we will test which of these solutions can work fast, safely, and reliably in real-world conditions," he added.

The Minesight Innovation Challenge is run by the U.S. non-profit organization Minesight together with the national platform Demine Ukraine, with the support of the Serhiy Prytula Humanitarian Foundation and the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine.

Challenge details and answers to frequently asked questions are available on the website: www.minesightchallenge.com.