The European Union and the EU4Digital initiative are backing the Global Hack – an online hackathon designed to share and rapidly develop ideas for urgently needed solutions in the current coronavirus pandemic.
Experts in their fields, scientists, tech enthusiasts, business leaders, project managers, marketing experts, designers, and innovators from the Eastern partner countries and across the world are all invited to take part in The Global Hack, which will take place completely online between 9 and 12 April.
The online hackathon is organised by Accelerate Estonia, Garage48, and Guaana with the support of Devpost.
The European Commission will provide up to €75,000 to the Global Hack for prize money to the winning teams. The total prize pool for the best ideas is €100,000.
The EU will also provide input to the government-related challenges to be hacked in the area of start-ups, small businesses and eHealth, as well as coaching in bringing viable solutions where they are needed.
The Global Hack aims to partner people from around the world with one another to exchange ideas, know-how and best practices to come up with creative and nimble solutions. Through bringing together world-class mentors and talented teams, solutions can be built for a better tomorrow. The hackathon will showcase emerging solutions that can demonstrate how digital innovations can be leveraged to connect local neighbourhoods and help people facing the greatest vulnerabilities.
The online event has already drawn attention across the globe – covered by Forbes, Silicon Republic and CNN among others – and brought on board a fleet of world-class mentors, such as Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, and public health specialist and neuro-technologist Khaliya.
Anyone can assemble a team of 6-12 people who are dedicated to an idea. The team leader must register the idea and name through Guaana. During the hackathon, participants will develop their best and brightest ideas to address the ongoing socio-economic crisis and to support recovery in the aftermath. Through the reddit page, anyone can post ideas for the feedback of other users, find partners and find the rules for the submission of challenges.
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