The pan-European online #EuvsVirus Hackathon, held during 24-26^th of April 2020 can truly be considered successful, with over 2.100 registered solutions proposed for the problems faced by communities during the crisis period of the coronavirus. The event, initiated by the European Commission, was unique through its steps and overall impact.

12 awards were won by teams that had members from Romania, and the list of winners can be seen here. The categories the teams in our country stood out in are as follows:

• Health & Life (Protective Equipment, Protection of medical personnel, Real time Communication & prevention, Research)- 4 awards
• Business Continuity (Demonstrate purpose)- 1 award
• Social & Political Cohesion (Protection of isolated & risk groups, Protection of citizens & democracy, Other)- 3 awards
• Remote Working & Education (University specific challenge)- 1 award
• Digital Finance ( Support of financial shortfalls, Enable crowd to help financially, Support for digitally excluded)- 3 awards.

Mircea Vădan, the coordinator of the national team of national curators says: ”We are happy we were able to contribute to endorsing and supporting the event. It is highly important for us to further support those teams that wish to carry out the results and launch them in order to reach those who need access to the outcome. In order to do so, we are looking for potential partners that are open to support the upcoming activities: mentoring, promoting, participating in webinars or helping connect to experts.”

Bianca Muntean, Cluster Manager of Transilvania IT, member of the national curators team says: ”This hackathon states that we managed to unite frontiers through digitalization, and that by teaming up with partners from all over the world, viable solutions were identified that are meant to overcome this crisis period. A first important step was made, however, this is only the beginning. From here on out it is important for the central authorities of Romania to support the outcomes, and we ask for them to be actively involved in supporting innovative ecosystems. We are happy to see the number of responders that were involved in the event and we remain by their side.

The jury selected 117 winning solutions. For each of the 37 challenges, 3 winners were selected with one main winner. The winners will be awarded cash prizes that were donated by partners, summing up to over 100.000 EUR.

You can see here the complete list of the winners and the prizes awarded.

”The #EUvsVirus Hackathon brought together people in 141 countries and many different areas of expertise from across the EU and the world, united in their desire to offer their time, talent, and ideas to help find solutions to the coronavirus crisis. This was just the beginning. With the support of the European Innovation Council and all of the partners involved in the Hackathon, I look forward to the transformation of these fantastic ideas into reality for the betterment of all.”, stated Ms Mariya Gabriel, the EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.

Transilvania IT Cluster, Cluj Startups, Freshblood, Iceberg / Innovation & Technology Cluster, Digital Innovation Zone, Asociația One Source Timișoara, TechHub Bucharest, Spherik, Techcelerator, Activize and Codecamp, as well as the public authorities, the universities, SMEs, startups and accelerators in Romania came together to ensure as many experts as possible from various sectors. The final results represent a success for our country.

#EUvsVirus brought together over 20.900 participants for 34 countries, with Romania holding the 4^th place with close to 1.500 participants registered. As a number of solutions proposed, the following sectors were the most approached: health (898), business (381), remote work and education (270), social and political cohesion (452) and digital financing (76). The countries with the highest number of solutions were Germany, Italy and Spain.  Romania submitted over 130 solutions.

In terms of supporting a smooth event, over 400 volunteers attended, with 2.600 mentors and 1.200 partners ensured the progress of the participants. The hackathon was open for both individual participation, as well as for companies. Those who came with solutions to the identified issues were asked to distribute their results on the Devpost platform, where other participants were able to find them and join the common quest. This aspect allowed participants to unite their forces and create 1.169 new teams.

The #EuvsVirus hackathon partners will further support the teams through financing or sponsorships. In the next period, a Matchathon will be organized, an event that aims to be a follow-up of this hackathon, will help identify the needs of the involved teams in terms of implementing their solutions and to facilitate access to potential partners willing to invest resources.

Please contact us for any additional information!

Bianca Muntean - Transilvania IT Cluster - bianca.muntean [at] transilvaniait.ro ()

Mircea Vădan - Cluj Startups - mircea [at] clujstartups.com ()

Ion Gheorghe Petrovai - Freshblood - igpetrovai [at] freshblood.ro ()