The 5th Robotics Olympiad “MINOAN ROBOTSPORTS COMPETITION GLOBAL OLYMPIAD 2025” and the 2nd Panhellenic Student Robotics, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition “Biznovation Challenge”, opened their gates on Friday afternoon (3-4-2026) at the Indoor Gymnasium of Nea Alikarnassos, with the event to be completed on April 6.
This is one of the largest educational robotics events in the world, with more than 4,500 competitors from 46 countries participating in the games, presenting a total of 2,535 robots. The honoured country is South Korea, while the honoured outlying island is Gavdos.
The official opening of the games was declared by the Deputy Minister of Digital Governance Christos Dermendzopoulos and the Regional Governor of Crete Stavros Arnaoutakis, in the presence of members of parliament, representatives of local government, education and sports bodies, as well as numerous citizens.
In his welcome address, Mr. Arnaoutakis welcomed the thousands of participants – pupils of all levels, students and adults from 45 countries and four continents – stressing that the Region systematically invests in innovation and creativity of the new generation. As he said, “Crete is, once again, at the heart of high-tech education.”
As part of the event, Stavros Arnaoutakis was honoured by the organising committee for his support of the Region of Crete, while special mention was made by the founder of the Hellenic Educational Robotics Organisation and chairman of the organising committee, Kostas Tsichla, of the contribution of the Region and its staff.
This year’s event is recorded as the first in Europe in terms of participation and the third worldwide, confirming its potential in the field of educational robotics.
The presence of Crete is particularly strong, with 128 teams participating in total. Of these, 89 teams are taking part in the main categories of the Olympiad, 31 teams are participating in the special football category with robot kits distributed free of charge to the island’s primary schools by the Region of Crete, while 8 teams are participating in the “Biznovation Challenge” programme, which has a total of 27 entries.
The events are implemented by the Hellenic Educational Robotics Organization in collaboration with the Region of Crete and the Observatory of Innovative Entrepreneurship of the Region of Crete, under the auspices of the Hellenic Parliament, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Digital Governance.
