›Copernicus Hackathon - The Big Blue

The Big Blue

The Mothership is an open innovation program (think extended hackathon) where select teams engage in an 8-week prototyping period using their unique expertise to help vulnerable landscapes on Earth. Our program results in an incubator-ready prototype that will help teams’ ideas take-off to the next level!

For this Mission, we have been chosen as one of the selected Copernicus Hackathon organizers. To this end, teams will be developing applications with Copernicus Data.

About Copernicus

Copernicus is the European Union’s revolutionary Earth Observation and Monitoring programme, looking at our planet and its environment for the ultimate benefit of all European citizens. Thanks to a variety of technologies, from satellites in space to measurement systems on the ground, in the sea and in the air, Copernicus delivers operational data and information services openly and freely in a wide range of application areas, such as: air pollution, agricultural productivity, tourism, water resources management, improved border surveillance, supporting the renewable energy industry, improved management of our forests, emergency management, urban area monitoring.

The Big Blue

Choose your landscape, plant your flag. Our landscape of focus for this Mission is: the ocean!

The UN has declared 2020 as the Decade of Ocean Science, where scientific efforts will go towards reversing the ocean health decline.  Also this year 2020, Europe will be host to the UN Ocean Conference in Portugal where key stakeholders and actors will come together to protect and conserve our fragile ocean systems. We decided to mirror this global attention here at the Copernicus Hackathon and become not only a voice but an actor among them.

What exactly is a mission?

An online/offline program, one kick-off day, one demo day, bi-weekly process coaching sessions, tailored business and technical training by a network of mentors and domain experts and most importantly…. coder peers willing to build collaborative solutions to planetary problems leveraged by technology!

Challenges

• Coral reef S.O.S (spotting ocean sedimentation) by Raising Corals Costa Rica
• 3D mapping for inundation by 510 Red Cross
• Tracking Sand Mafia by Mothership

Schedule

• registration open: 05 February
• registration closes: 01 March
• kick-off: 07 March (physical attendance optional @The Hague Tech)
• demo-day: 08 May (physical attendance optional @The Hague Tech)

Evaluation

• Relevance to the hackathon topic. Weight: 25%
• Interest of the project (Is the project innovative? Does it create value for the users? Is it feasible technically?). Weight: 50%
• Quality of the team (technical and business expertise, understanding of the thematic area, commitment to the project). Weight: 25%

Benefits

• Overall winner team gets a seat in the Copernicus Accelerator (a one-year coaching scheme organised by the EC).
• €2.000 for each challenge (€6000 total cash prize)
• Finance and network support to accelerators and incubators
• Access to the Mothership community of technology experts, investors, business ideators.

Apply

Register as a team or as an individual. Teams should have a minimum of 5 and maximum of 6 people. 

Looking for developers, AI savvies, design thinkers, students, entrepreneurs, for-profit companies and NGOs. Special call out to remote sensing specialists, GIS experts as this Copernicus Data challenge is meant for your undertaking!

Heads up! All Participants to a Copernicus hackathon shall be of legal age AND resident of one of the Copernicus participating countries (EU Member States + Norway and Iceland). 

Non-EU Citizens: Participants must have valid residence permit/student visa & temporary residency until the end of 2021 to be able to join the Hackathon and to win the Accelerator seat. If you don’t have a residence permit, student visa or temporary residency till Q4/2021 you are unfortunately not able to join the event. 

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