The two initiatives, promoted by Solvers Wanted, are complementary and offer different ways of collaborating with Leonardo: Discovering Future Technologies, an ongoing challenge dedicated to technology scouting; Photonic Technologies: Optical Processing, Vision and Disruptive Materials, a technology challenge focused on the most advanced solutions in the field of photonics.

Discovering Future Technologies

Discovering Future Technologies was launched with the aim of identifying advanced, emerging and cutting-edge technologies that can contribute to the development of Leonardo’s future technological capabilities.

Through regular thematic focus sessions, the challenge will enable the promotion of distinctive expertise, prototypes and innovative use cases, fostering collaboration between the innovation ecosystem and the company’s specialist teams.

The first focus, dedicated to Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Computing, Future Sensing, Low-Observability & Resilient Materials, covers the following areas of interest:

The selected technologies may be presented to the Leonardo teams through dedicated demonstrations, creating opportunities for future collaborations, trials and shared innovation projects.

Photonic Technologies: Optical Processing, Vision and Disruptive Materials

At the same time, applications are now open for the new Technological Challenge dedicated to Photonic Technologies, with the aim of identifying innovative solutions to address the growing demands of information processing, imaging and infrared technologies.

The initiative is aimed at those developing technologies capable of overcoming the current limitations of electronic architectures in terms of performance, energy efficiency, latency and integration.

The challenge is divided into three technological areas:

The initiative also includes an Infrastructural Challenge, dedicated to the development of optoelectronic co-integration ecosystems capable of integrating photonic, RF (radio frequency) and digital components within highly compact and efficient microsystems.

Applications for the Technological Challenge are open from 6 July to 15 September 2026.

With the revamp of Solvers Wanted and the launch of these two new challenges, Leonardo is expanding opportunities for collaboration with the innovation ecosystem, fostering the development of technologies capable of enabling the next generation of smart systems.