The European Commission has identified 117 innovative solutions during the #EUvsVirus Hackathon to support the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The event, held on 24, 25 and 26 April in a virtual format and organised by the Commission in collaboration with the European Innovation Council, provided an opportunity for civil society, innovators, partners and investors from EU member states and beyond to collaborate and exchange ideas, with the aim of developing innovative solutions to address coronavirus-related challenges.
Out of 2,150 proposed solutions, 117 were selected as winners. The evaluation criteria used by the jury placed greater weight on potential impact (40%), with equal weight given to complexity and novelty, prototype completion, and business plan effectiveness (20% for each of the three categories). One winner and two runners-up were selected for each challenge; partners will subsequently offer cash prizes to the winners of their choice. Specifically, in the six most significant challenge categories, the winners were:
- Team Discovery (Hungary) for their highly scalable patient monitoring system, which minimises the need for physical contact between nurses and patients (Health and Life category)
- Linistry for safe retail (Hungary) for their remote queuing solution designed to ensure social distancing in the retail sector (Business Continuity category)
- Aidbind (Bulgaria, Germany, Malta, Sweden, Switzerland) for their solution to the information gap between the supply, demand, and funding of medical products acquired through donations and charity (Social and political cohesion category)
- The Village - Where The World Is Your Classroom (Switzerland, Ukraine, United States, India) for their online village platform, which can be shared with friends, family, teachers, and colleagues for a virtual learning experience (Remote working and education category)
- Bankera Business Care (Lithuania) for their solution providing SMEs with short-term financing to cover liquidity needs during periods of crisis (Digital finance category)
- Sewers4COVID (Greece, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom) for their sewage surveillance platform for early virus detection, helping decision-makers direct resources to where they are most needed ("Other" category)
For further information regarding this news, click here.