Alongside other Romanian ecosystem stakeholders, Spherik has joined the pan-European non-profit EUvsVirus hackathon, as part of the team of national curators.

The event will take place online, during the weekend of April 24 – 26, and aims to gather 60,000 people in 300 virtual teams, designed to find, in the shortest possible time, innovative solutions to overcome the challenges related to coronavirus.

Everyone can join the open-call via the website https://euvsvirus.org/, where they will find all the necessary information. Corporations, universities, public administrations, NGOs, SMEs, startups, and accelerators can get involved and participate.

Developers, designers, creatives and problem solvers with expertise in healthcare, business, sociology, education are encouraged to apply. Other experts in the fields of digitalization, business, health, education, etc., who can support teams with their expertise, are called to join the team of mentors. And for those who need some extra motivation, there are some ninja places available. The ninja-mentors will be involved in organizing and coordinating teams during the hackathon.

As a result of this hackathon, it is expected to reduce the implementation time of innovative solutions developed by start-ups and decision-makers, because innovators will be able to use the work already done by other innovators in Europe, instead of starting from scratch or restoring work already made by others.

EUvsVirus is a pan-European hackathon organized by the European Commission under the patronage of the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, and Youth Mrs. Mariya Gabriel, who stated: “This pan-European hackathon is an example of how Europe can meet in times of crisis. It is inspirational to witness this manifestation of the solidarity of our community of innovators. The most talented of them will do their best to find solutions for coronavirus and come to the support of our citizens. This is the European innovation in action. “

Registrations are still available on the initiative’s website.

The Romanian stakeholders involved in the Pan-European initiative are: Transylvania IT Cluster, Cluj Startups, Freshblood, Iceberg / Innovation & Technology Cluster, Digital Innovation Zone, TechHub Bucharest, Techcelerator, One Source Association, Activize, Codecamp and Spherik Accelerator.

Over 30 European countries have already joined the #EUvsVirus hackathon, among them are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Holland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.

You can also find more information about the actions and initiatives of research and innovation of the European Commission and here: Coronavirus Research and Innovation initiatives.

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