Romania joins #EUvsVirus hackathon

The European Commission, in close collaboration with the EU member states, will host a #EUvsVirus pan-European hackathon to connect civil society, innovators, partners and investors across Europe in order to develop innovative solutions for coronavirus-related challenges.

Transylvania IT Cluster, Cluj Startups, Freshblood, Iceberg / Innovation & Technology Cluster, Digital Innovation Zone, TechHub Bucharest, Techcelerator, Spherik, One Source Association, Activize and Codecamp have joined the pan-European non-profit hackathon EUvsVirus in the team of national curators.

The event, which will take place from April 24 to 26, will take place online and aims to gather 60,000 people in 300 virtual teams designed to find, in the shortest possible time, innovative solutions to overcome the challenges related to coronavirus.

euvsvirus.org is a Europe-wide online hackathon organized by the most plugged in and nationally connected actors from all over Europe. It builds upon already conducted national hackathons to enable the rapid execution of brilliant solutions. Corporations, universities, public administrations, NGOs, SMEs, startups and accelerators can get involved and participate.

Basically, developers, designers, creatives and problem solvers with expertise in healthcare, business, sociology, education are sought. They are also looking for experts in the fields of digitalization, business, health, education, etc., who can support teams with their expertise. It also requires the ninja (organizers) who will be involved in organizing and coordinating teams during the hackathon.

As a result of this hackathon, it is expected to reduce the implementation time of innovative solutions developed by start-ups and decision-makers, because innovators will be able to use the work already done by other innovators in Europe, instead of starting from scratch or restoring work. already made by others, according to the European Commission. Also, information will be identified and provided to hospitals and public administrations on innovative solutions in other EU Member States.

The best solutions will be invited to join the European Council for Innovation (EIC) community platform, which will facilitate connections with end-users (for example, hospitals) and will also provide access to investors, foundations and other business opportunities. EIC funding and other EU financial support mechanisms, at national, regional and local level.