The European Commission announced the winning projects of the #EUvsVirus hackathon during an online ceremony, which was organized in close collaboration with the member states of the European Union in just three weeks. The competition gathered 20,900 participants from across Europe and beyond, with Croatia represented by 281 participants. The ViraTrace project won in the Health and Life category for the challenge of Real-Time Communication and Prevention, and a representative from Croatia is part of the project team. The BirdBox project from the Croatian company Poslovna inteligencija ranked among the top four teams in the Digital Finance category for the challenge of Supporting the Identification of Financial Shortcomings.
Regarding the prototype solution aimed at finding the optimal strategy to assist the economy, Marko Štajcer, Director of the Innovation and Development Department at Poslovna inteligencija stated: „The platform also allows for the creation of simulations and testing of various scenarios regarding the impact of the crisis on the economic activity of individual countries or the unified EU market. This solution is applicable not only to the immediate consequences of the current crisis but also in the event of a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic or another crisis that would again affect the economy. The solution is also applicable for market analysis and risk assessment under different market conditions.“
Other winning projects whose teams include representatives from Croatia are:
- IFFA (Integrated Fast Financial Aid) in the Digital Finance category for the challenge of Accelerated Access to Financial Support
- arts4refugees in the Digital Finance category for the challenge of Supporting the Digitally Excluded
- Transparency in the Digital Finance category for the challenge of ‘Other’
By the end of the hackathon, 2,150 completed solutions from around the world were submitted. The largest number of participants, as well as submitted solutions, was recorded in Germany, Italy, and Spain, and interestingly, innovators from Mexico, Russia, Australia, Malaysia, and even Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya participated. Competitors developed innovative solutions from April 24 to 26 in six main categories divided into 37 challenges. Other awarded solutions can be found HERE.
„HAMAG-BICRO, as the national body supporting competitors from Croatia, enthusiastically engaged in organizing the largest global hackathon to date, and we mobilized relevant ministries, state institutions, entrepreneurial support institutions, universities, faculties, institutes, and nearly 3,000 companies for this engagement. The result of our efforts is the registration of 281 competitors at the hackathon from Croatia, as well as the participation of Croatian experts in the role of mentors and jury members. We are extremely pleased to see our representatives in the winning teams.“, said Mate Kovač, Acting Director of the Development and User Support Sector of HAMAG-BICRO.
