The jury chooses LUMC (Cairelab) and the Police as entrants with the best AI cases
KickstartAI and AI Coalition for the Netherlands (AIC4NL) today announced the winners of the National AI Challenge 2025. After a selection day where five finalists presented their cases, LUMC (through Cairelab) and The Police emerged as winners.
The LUMC wants to use AI technology to develop a solution that can generate structured wound reports based on photographs to ease the workload for nurses and improve the quality of care. The Police Department wants to develop an AI tool that provides insight into complex environmental laws and helps investigators leverage all available laws to better hold polluters accountable.
A team of dedicated AI experts and machine learning engineers from KickstartAI will now get to work solving the winners' challenges with AI.
Comments from the winners
"We are especially super happy to have won this and have this opportunity to lighten the nursing registration burden and really improve wound care," said Albert Simonse, Nursing Information Officer at LUMC. "I hope this solution will become standard support for nurses in the wound care process, and that it will be available in every work environment where wound care is provided."
The Police Department is also delighted. "Very happy that we won! Tackling environmental crime is finally starting to get the attention it deserves these days. This AI tool will greatly help increase the clout, allowing us to tackle the biggest environmental criminals faster and more robustly," said Amir Niknam, Senior Advisor at the Police.
The finalists, impact and follow-up
The National AI Challenge 2025 began April 23 with the submission of use cases. The most promising entries addressed a concrete and relevant problem, had societal impact, scale potential and sufficient qualitative data for AI development. After a pre-selection, the top five finalists, Municipality of The Hague, Institute Responsible Medicine Use, LUMC (through Cairelab and the emergency room) and the Police, presented their cases to an expert jury on Sept. 9.
The jury was chaired by Marelle van Beerschoten (founder and director of Digital Shapers) and also included:
- Janneke Niessen, founder and investor at CapitalT
- Thomas Dohmen, Director AI Collaboration Center, Leiden University and Business Director ICAI
- Thomas Faber, MT member Digital Economy Directorate, Ministry of Economic Affairs
- Herman Kienhuis, co-founder Curiosity and VC investor
"I look back on the pitches with great enthusiasm! They were of high quality and highlighted the social value that AI can perfectly support. I feel we are getting more and more creative with what we can do with AI. Let this be an inspiration for the rest of the Netherlands!" said Van Beerschoten.
In the coming months, AI experts and software engineers from KickstartAI are developing advanced AI solutions for LUMC and the Police. The focus is not only on technology and integration into existing systems, but also on usability. The insights gained are valuable for a wider audience and contribute to the development and adoption of AI in the Netherlands, strengthening innovation, productivity and our country's competitive position.
Learn more
KickstartAI and AIC4NL both focus on advancing the development and adoption of responsible AI in the Netherlands and have found each other as complementary partners with a shared mission to advance the development and adoption of AI. As a first step in the collaboration, the National AI Challenge 2024 was launched for AIC4NL participants. A follow-up this year where two winners were selected. Through KickstartAI and AIC4NL's website and socials, interested parties can stay up to date on the project's progress.
