The European Commission is organising the pan-European #EUvsVirus hackathon, which will be held from 24 to 26 April 2020. The Commission expects the event to bring about the mobilisation of European innovators and civil society. The hackathon is part of the ERA vs. Corona Action Plan prepared by the European Commission in cooperation with EU member countries. The pan-European online hackathon is the notional superstructure of national hackathons whose purpose is to ensure the use and propagation of viable projects at the Europe-wide level and the rapid implementation of such projects.
The pan-European #EUvsVirus hackathon will address approximately twenty problems associated with the coronavirus including, for example, rapid production of equipment, expansion of production capabilities and transfer of knowledge between countries. Individual challenges reflect five priority areas – health and medicine, business continuity, social cohesion, protection of risk groups and education. The ambition of #EUvsVirus is to attract 60,000 participants across the European countries.
Registration is open to all beginning entrepreneurs, students, established companies and innovators, i.e. everyone who wants to get involved and join forces in the fight against the coronavirus and its impacts. The hackathon will enable participants to form teams across member countries and to work in all official languages of the European Union. The organisers do not want to miss out on any good ideas simply because they are not in English. Those who are interested in being part of the hackathon can register at www.euvsvirus.org as volunteers, partners or mentors.
CzechInvest is the national curator of the hackathon, which in practice means that the agency is coordinating the member country’s participation and helping to raise awareness of the event. As the national curator, it is part of the Decision-Making Group composed of representatives of the European Commission and national curators, i.e. organisers of national coronavirus hackathons. Among other things, CzechInvest is responsible for supporting projects that are part of the Czech Hack the Crisis hackathon and their involvement in #EUvsVirus.
More information is available in the attached press release and on the hackathon website.