Over 20,000 participants from all over Europe took part in in the online hackathon “EU vs. Virus”, organized by the European Commission to develop innovative ideas to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. Amongst them also startups, problem-solvers and mentors from Austria.
More than 270 individuals from Austria participated in the hackathon and worked on solutions in the areas of Health & Life, Business Continuity, Remote Working & Education, Social & Political Cohesion and Digital Finance. In addition, 25 Austrian mentors contributed to the success of the event by providing their time and skillsets to project teams.
Two members of the AustrianStartups Team also played a crucial part in the organization of the hackathon: Michael Ionita joined as Head of Operations and successfully set up a voting application that made it possible to evaluate the over 2,000 submitted projects within 36 hours. Further, Josine Bakkes, who has been the project lead for the Austrian hackathon “Hack the Crisis Austria”, joined the task force of 400+ volunteers as a national curator and led the community development coordination of the event.
Among the final 120 projects that have been selected as the best solutions to support the European and global fight against the coronavirus outbreak, 7 have at least one Austrian Team Member. MassVentilatorSystem, MySlots, HalloSophia, MBroke, SERS substrates, Tutify and BorderX.eu each won a prize in their respective domain and will be invited to take part in the “Matchathon” in the end of May. During this online event, they will be matched with corporates, investors and stakeholders. Further, they will receive ongoing support from the European Commission to enable them to put their plans into action and tackle the coronavirus crisis. Congratulations!
