Author: Altheo Valentini (EGIna)

Over the last couple of months, thousands of creative initiatives for connecting people online have been launched all across the Globe, most of them proving how the Internet has the power to create new ways of cooperating, learning or simply having fun.

EUvsVirus Hackathon (link is external) has included all these aspects involving over 20,900 people from European and other countries and producing more than 2,150 innovative solutions for coronavirus-related challenges. Commissioner Gabriel said: “The #EUvsVirus Hackathon is a great example of the European cooperative spirit I so admire. When times get tough we come together, work together and we will beat this virus together for everyone. I thank all those who have given their free time, boundless energy and expertise to make this a reality. Tomorrow is just the beginning – the solutions will be the true reward.”

The winning solutions will be invited to join a European Innovation Council COVID Platform, which will be launched here (link is external) on 30th April, to facilitate connections with end users, such as hospitals, and provide access to investors, foundations and other funding opportunities from across the EU.

Besides the capacity to speed-up the process in conceptualising and upscaling innovative social solutions, the main strength of such an initiative is to base the entire process on the educational potential that a co-creation experience could offer to all the participants, regardless of their digital competence level and professional or personal profile. Indeed, as can be seen from the multitude of positive messages on social networking sites, by the end everyone involved feels like a winner, whether they have been awarded with a plate or a prize.

Other similar events are due to take place over the coming months which will represent a great chance to share and cement your ideas on how to improve access to learning opportunities through digital skills and online learning environments!

The most notable of these is undoubtedly the DigiEduHack (link is external), a global movement dedicated to solving the toughest digital education challenges faced by organisations today. It involves a 24-hour hackathon which takes place simultaneously in organisations around the world. In 2019, 33 simultaneous DigiEduHack events took place in 21 countries with 1,700 participants.

This year, the DG EAC of the European Commission, together with EIT Climate-KIC (link is external) and Aalto University (link is external), are aiming to put on 60 events all around the globe with at least 2,500 participants creating innovative solutions in digital education. The event will take place later this November (dates will be published soon on www.digieduhack.com (link is external)), but interested organisations and individuals can already read about the process here (link is external) and check out the DigiEduHack Event Planning Guide (link is external), as well as learn more about the solutions (link is external) presented in 2019.

If you cannot wait until November, below you can find a list of other online Hackathons that will take place sooner, meeting different interests and needs of the EPALE community:
– Hack at Home will take place on May 2nd-3rd and will kick-off a series of hackathons organised during the whole of Spring-Summer 2020 by the Major League Hacking, a committed and passionate maker community, consisting of the next generation of technology leaders and entrepreneurs.
– HackYeah represents the biggest stationary Hackathon in Europe and the next edition will take place on 5th-7th June, 2020. The event will be open for talented people from all areas, who will have a variety of tasks (link is external) to choose from and passionate people to work with.
– Copernicus Hackathons bring together developers, entrepreneurs and topic-specific experts to develop new applications based on Copernicus Earth observation (EO) data and services. They usually take place during high-level conferences and meetings organised by the actors of the local, national and/or European Copernicus eco-system. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the next four events will take place online and will be open to any EU citizen over the age of 18.