At Hackton EU vs. Virus will be attended by over 12,000 participants, hundreds of Israeli entrepreneurs, over 200 judges, a prize of 80 Euros for the winners and one clear goal: a joint effort to find solutions to the fight against the Corona virus epidemic, and the reality that will arrive the day after
The State of Israel is one of the organizers of the pan-European hackathon, EU vs. Virus, which will take place this weekend (Friday, 24.04). This is an unprecedented project in its scope: a competition of ideas in the style of "Eurovision against Corona", which will be attended by tens of thousands of participants, and is designed to mobilize creative forces from across Europe and beyond, for intensive and focused work that will respond to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 virus in various fields:
- בריאות
- Business Continuity
- Social guarantee and the protection of democracy
- Remote work and education
- Availability of financial aid
The State of Israel has taken upon itself the concentration of the sixth field, to which the solutions that are not included in the other five topics are associated. For example: response to hygiene in public transportation, integration of drones in citizen toilets and more.
Hundreds of Israeli entrepreneurs, including startup companies, academic researchers, and brilliant students have already registered, making Israel one of the leaders in the number of participants relative to the size of the population.
Registering forEU vs. Virus will remain open until Friday evening (24.04), so that anyone who has a successful and innovative idea to deal with the challenges of life with the virus is invited to register. The hackathon will be held during the coming weekend (24-26.04), when the final event will be broadcast live to the whole of Europe, with the performance of the band Israeli Lola Marsh. At the end of the hackathon, the projects will be submitted to a pan-European digital platform, and next week they will be discussed by over 200 judges from across the continent.
The winning projects in each field will be published on a pan-European platform and thus their idea will be exposed to tens of millions of potential customers, private and business, in addition to A prize of 80,000 euros. Also, the partner companies undertake to examine assistance in the development and implementation of the ideas, while retaining the rights to the idea in the hands of the entrepreneurs.
The entire event is virtual, with each team working from home, and follows a schedule that includes a kick-off meeting, meetings with mentors from around the world, a deadline to upload a filmed pitch of the solution to the cloud, and a celebratory closing event. Starting Friday morning, the participants will be able to take advantage of mentors and webinars offered by the project partners, including Google, Samsung, McKinsey, the World Tourism Organization, Procter & Gamble, Santander Bank and AWS - Amazon's cloud services.
The hackathon EU vs. Virus is an initiative of the European Commission, and the Israeli partners in the project are the Innovation Authority, ISERD - the Israeli Directorate for European R&D, the Israeli representative of EIT - the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and Israel Clouds - the home of the cloud computing community in Israel.
The Israeli side of the project is organized and managed by a company BLEE Hackathons, who was responsible for the organization of the international virtual hackathon against the backdrop of the Corona epidemic before Passover. This hackathon was held two weeks ago at the initiative of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality and the international Resilience Cities Network, which includes 84 cities from around the world. It was attended by 45 teams accompanied by dozens of international mentors, who responded to challenges presented by Mayor Ron Huldai. Some of the solutions are already implemented in the city and have been launched in dozens of cities in the world.
European Commissioner for Research and Innovation Maria Gabriel: "The pan-European hackathon is an example of how Europe unites in times of crisis. It is inspiring to witness the solidarity of the community of entrepreneurs. The best minds will unite to find solutions to Corona and support citizens. European innovation in action! All 27 member states are participating as well as Norway, Israel, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The winning solutions will be invited to join the European platform for innovation which will help in connections to investors and end customers from all over Europe including hospitals for example.'
Director ISERD - The director of Israel's R&D with the European Union, Nili Shalu:I am proud that Israel is taking a significant part in the pan-European hackathon to deal with the challenges of the Corona virus. This is a great opportunity to reveal Israeli innovation and creativity, to increase cooperation in Europe and to participate in a European-wide effort to develop necessary solutions in all areas of life during this difficult time. Our active involvement in the European hackathon is combined with our involvement and success in the European R&D programs in which we have been partners for about 25 years, and their contribution to the Israeli economy and to increasing cooperation in the fields of research and innovation with Europe is enormous. I thank all our partners in the activity - EIT HUB in Israel and the BLEE Hackathons company. "
recruitment of judges toEU vs. Virus continues at this point: The European Commission together with the State of Israel and the other partners of the hackathon are looking for professionals with at least 4 years of experience, who are interested in acting as judges and who are able to devote about 4 hours of work on April 27-28. More details and registration - HERE.
The schedule and ways to watch the hackathon events:
The events will be broadcast live on the Facebook page EU vs. Virus
