The Innovation Unit – Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship Centre of the University of Thessaly and the Region of Thessaly organise an open Innovation Hackathon in the framework of the Innovent Forum 2024, at JOIST Innovation Park in Larissa, on Saturday, February 10, 2024.
The aim of the Hackathon is to promote, network, and reward ideas, proposals, and applications that contribute to the innovative solution of problems and important issues for the development of Thessaly through mobilising the creative human capital of universities, research centres, and businesses. The recent floods that severely affected the regions of Thessaly have brought to the forefront the need for strategic planning and the joining of all forces to effectively address the impacts of climate change. In the process of repositioning and reorganization, technology plays a key role.
The Hackathon is supported by JOIST Innovation Park and Institute of Entrepreneurship Development iED.
The Hackathon is open to project teams that will develop a proposal related to the following challenge – theme: Technology as a tool for managing the impacts of climate change: Prevention, response, recovery.
The following idea areas are indicative, but other ideas/areas are not excluded:
- Ideas/applications related to new cooperation models (e.g., Clusters) for early, timely, and effective crisis response.
- Ideas/applications contributing to a faster organisation of appropriate services and agencies.
- Ideas/applications exploiting big data, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, information systems, and other applications from the field of new information and communication technologies.
- Ideas/applications related to technologies that facilitate the transition of the agricultural sector, public health, and all actors that can contribute to addressing crises brought about by climate change.
Working groups are invited to structure their proposals in relation to the challenge, focusing on one of the following areas:
- Technology
- Climate Change
- Urban Sustainable Development
- Health
- Agricultural Economy
The deadline for submitting proposals is extended until February 5, 2024, until 20:00.
Proposals submitted by working groups should be in pptx (PowerPoint) format, with a maximum of 12 slides. In addition, proposals may be accompanied by clarifications – annotations in Word text, up to 500 words.
It is suggested that the proposals of the working groups include the following sections:
- Identifying a need/defining a framework for action based on need (3 slides)
- Existing solutions (1 slide)
- Proposal to the challenge (2-3 slides)
- Budget (1 slide)
- The working group (2-3 slides)
- Expected results – Risk analysis (1-2 slides)
Teams participating in the Innovation Hackathon can consist of two (2) to five (5) people. Only natural persons aged 18 years or older are eligible to participate in the teams. The maximum number of teams participating in the Innovation Hackathon is eight (8). In the event that entries exceed the maximum number, the selected proposals will be evaluated by the relevant committee based on the evaluation criteria set out below, which will be used for the final ranking.
The Hackathon is addressed to teams that may consist of researchers or students (undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD) of one or more academic/research institutions, business executives, startupers, or any interested party. A person may not participate in more than one group. The teams selected to participate in the Hackathon will have a physical presence at the venue, the JOIST Innovation Park in Larissa.
Each team will be invited – in a period of about 4 hours – to formalise and shape its idea under the guidance of a special mentor, depending on the focus area of each team. At the end of this task, each team will present its proposal to an Evaluation Committee set up exclusively for this purpose and composed of academics, representatives of institutions, and businesses. The teams’ presentation should be short, with a maximum presentation time of 5 minutes.
The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated include:
- The characteristics of the working group.
- The maturity of the proposal.
- The relevance of the proposal in relation to the challenge.
- The realism of the proposal (as a whole) and its constituent parts (objectives, budget, expected results).
At the end of the evaluation, three prizes will be awarded to the top three proposals in the overall score:
- First place: €2,000
- Second place: €1,000
- Third Place: 2 free spots at JOIST Innovation Park Coworking Space for 3 months & free mentoring for 3 months to implement their idea.