EU Sparks for Climate: Citizens Championship Competition 

The climate challenges are growing. And more urgent every day. That’s why more ideas and solutions are needed to face them and solve them with the urgency they demand. With this purpose EU Sparks for Climate: Citizens Hackathon Championship is born, a virtual competition for knowledge valorization and creation of technological and social innovation solutions that respond to challenges proposed by the European citizens.

In the first stage of the Championship, from May to June 2024, 22 virtual local hackathons will be held between teams formed by citizens and researchers. In this way, citizen engagement with science, one of the major objectives of this programme: the valorization of scientific research as a lever for impact and transformation, is added. Each participating team will create a technological or social innovation solution to the proposed challenges. These local hackathons will be co-organised by local hosts in 22 European locations and will be developed virtually for four days, following a methodology to foster collaboration and innovation processes.

There will be 2 winning teams for each local competition, 44 in total. These teams will receive training to sharpen their skills and solutions in a dedicated training and coaching programme that will include modules on management, entrepreneurship, sustainability, social impact, research valorization and intellectual property.

After the training and coaching programme, the teams will present their solutions in the grand final in which 3 winning teams will be chosen. In addition to receiving cash prizes (€5,000 for each winning team), the winning teams will receive, for example, tailored mentorship, support to valorise the solution, support for a crowdfunding campaing or support to scalate their solution.

EU Sparks for Climate: Citizens Hackathon Championship is a programme supported by the European Commission, and implemented by Barrabés.biz in collaboration with Energy Cities, European Association of Development Agencies (EURADA), European Citizen Science Association’s (ECSA), The European Crowdfunding Network AISBL (EUROCROWD), and EUROCROWD.

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