We return with the fifth edition of the EaP Civil Society Hackathons, and invite civic tech enthusiasts from the EaP countries to register for the 2023 EU-EaP Civic Tech Acceleration Hackathon to boost their civic tech solutions from prototypes to products!
The 2023 Hackathon will be held online on 12 May – 10 June 2023. It will be focused on enhancing existing prototypes of digital solutions designed by civic tech teams from the six Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. In the best traditions of start-up accelerators, 15 teams of civic tech projects will work with mentors and IT professionals & graphic designers from EaP and EU to improve their prototypes and compete for the 2023 Civil Society Digitalisation Award, a special facility to support the full-fledged development and launch of one (or more) civic tech solution proposed by the 2023 Hackathon participants.
The expected average amount of support per a winner is EUR 10,000; up to EUR 12,000 may be awarded on an exceptional basis.
To help you better understand the hackathon and the application process, we are hosting an Information Webinar.
Here are the details of the webinar:
- Date: April 18, 2023
- Time: 1:00 PM CET (Brussels time)
- Location: Zoom webinar
- HOW to join: REGISTER HERE
We welcome applications for the 2023 EU-EaP Civic Tech Acceleration Hackathon from:
- Teams with an existing prototype of a civic tech solution and a minimum set of technical skills to work on its enhancement from the EaP counties, and
- Technical experts – IT professionals and graphic designers – from the EaP and the EU counties interested in helping the Hackathon teams with their prototypes.
Technical experts (developers, designers, data experts, QA experts, product owners, business analysts, etc.) selected within this Call for Applications will be able to join any existing team of their choice, complementing the team’s skills with their knowledge and experience.
Applications from grassroots activists and young tech professionals are encouraged. More details.
The 2023 EU-EaP Civic Tech Acceleration Hackathon seeks to unleash the potential of digital technologies and looks for prototypes of civic tech solutions that helps to improve transparency and accountability in the EaP countries, address the concrete needs of communities, and/or lead to the improvement of public services. This includes such areas as e-participation, e-transparency, open data, citizen mobilisation, citizen-to-citizen services, civil society transparency & accountability, and more.
The proposed civic tech solutions may cover one or several of the areas. They must foresee strong ‘user-system’ interaction and must be used by citizens of one or more EaP country. For more details, read the Guidelines for Applicants.
We put together some frequently asked questions to help you understand what we mean by a prototype, who can apply, what kind of team you need and what civil tech solutions we can support. Check them out here!
To apply for participation in the 2023 EU-EaP Civic Tech Acceleration Hackathon please register here. The deadlines for submission of applications:
- If you apply on behalf of your team with a civic tech solution prototype, please apply before 24 April 2023!
- If you are an IT professional or a graphic or web designer interested in helping the teams, please apply before 1 May 2023!
Please see the key dates of the 2023 EU-EaP Civic Tech Acceleration Hackathon below:
On the final day of the 2023 EU-EaP Civic Tech Acceleration Hackathon, the teams will present their improved prototypes to the Hackathon organisers, mentors and other participants, who will evaluate the proposed civic tech solutions. Up to 5 top-scoring prototypes – the Hackathon finalists – will be nominated for the 2023 Digitalisation for Civil Society Award, a special facility to support the full-fledged development and launch of the best solution(s) of the 2023 Hackathon participants. Based on the applications received, the Award Selection Committee will choose one or more of the nominated civic tech solutions for the support with the development and launch.
Check some video and photos from our previous Hackathons and visit our IDEA BANK for some ideas of digital tools developed by the Hackathon participants and Civic Digital Fellows.
