About the Hackathon

2022 EU-EaP Civil Society Hackathon brings together around 50 civil society activists, IT professionals and designers from the EaP countries to work on civic tech projects addressing the needs of communities, helping citizens to better hold their governments to account and/or leading to the improvement of public services in their home countries.

The best solution(s) designed within the Hackathon will get support to be fully developed and launched.



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Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, 2020 EaP Civil Society Hackathon is organised online

news and updates

Seven Ideas Nominated for 2020 Digitalisation for Civil Society Award
06 Aug, 2020
16 Ideas Selected for 2020 Online Hackathon!
29 Jun, 2020
How the 2020 Online Hackathon Will Proceed & Why I Should Apply
19 Jun, 2020
Call for Applications from IT Professionals & Designers – 2020 Re-opened
08 Jun, 2020
EaP Civil Society Hackathon Goes Online!
04 Jun, 2020
2020 EaP Civil Society Hackathon Postponed
07 Mar, 2020
Ideas, Teams, and Countries: Answering Your Questions
07 Feb, 2020
Eligible Ideas of IT Solutions for the 2020 EaP Hackathon
04 Feb, 2020
2020 EaP Civil Society Hackathon: Registration is open!
31 Jan, 2020
Call for Applications: Become a Mentor at Our 2020 Regional Ideathon in March in Chisinau!
17 Jan, 2020
PROVIDNYK Map Won 2019 Digitalisation for Civil Society Award
30 Dec, 2019
#IT4 Society: Insights from the Winners of the 2019 Hackathon
20 Jun, 2019
#IT4Society: 20 Ideas Go to 2019 EaP Civil Society Hackathon in Tbilisi
31 May, 2019
Deadline for submitting ideas of IT solutions extended until May 6
27 Apr, 2019
7 Questions You Asked About 2019 Hackathon
23 Apr, 2019
What ideas of IT solutions are eligible for the Hackathon?
22 Apr, 2019
2019 EaP Civil Society Hackathon: Registration is open!
15 Apr, 2019
Second EaP Civil Society Hackathon takes place in Minsk
02 Jul, 2018
IT professional and designers are needed for selected ICT tools ideas! Deadline: 14 May 2018
10 May, 2018
2018 EaP Hackathon: 5 reasons to apply before the deadline (30 April 2018)!
27 Apr, 2018
FAQs #2: ICT projects under implementation, application forms and portfolio
26 Apr, 2018
Submit Your Idea of IT Solution until 30 April
20 Apr, 2018
FAQs #1: Participation cost, eligibility of ICT tools, and others
12 Apr, 2018
Ideas of ICT tools: What solutions are we looking for?
05 Apr, 2018
EU supports innovative civic ideas through digital solutions in the Eastern Partner countries
02 Apr, 2018
More news

Why Participate

1.
Smart Team Members & Mentors’ Support

Find new members for your team to work on your digital solution, or join a team working on a project to solve a problem you care about. Our mentors from civic tech, IT and consulting companies have a lot of experience and can help you improve your project!

2.
New Knowledge & Useful Network

With master classes from interdisciplinary experts, you will have the chance to learn something new and, hopefully, enjoy yourself in the process. And what else? Participants from six countries. IT professionals and designers can get remuneration for their work on the prototypes.

3.
Get the Award

Based on the voting results, up to seven ideas will be nominated for the Digitalisation for Civil Society Award and have the opportunity to get funding for the full development and launch. Our previous Hackathon winners have already launched their solutions. In 2020 it could be you!

Mentors

IRYNA VELSKA
Key Expert at EaP Civil Society Facility, Ukraine
VLADIMIR IVANOV
Key Expert at EaP Civil Society Facility, Ukraine
Anton Perkin
CEO at FusionWorks, Moldova
Roman Gluck
IT Project Manager, UX designer, Moldova
Hovhannes Aghajanyan
Co-Founder of Citybugs, Armenia
Oleksii Zelivianskyi
E-Services component lead of EGAP Program, Ukraine
Jane Klepa
Executive Director at 1991 Open Data Incubator, Ukraine
Aral Balkan
Designer and developer at Small Technology Foundation, Ireland
Laura Kalbag
Designer at Small Technology Foundation, Ireland

QUOTES

Denis Romanescu
Moldova
Here I found really interesting people – both participants and mentors, and learnt a lot of new things.
Polina Pliskovskaya
Belarus
During these two days of Ideathon, communicating with mentors and other participants, I managed to fully formulate my idea, which has all chances to become a great project.
Karina Litvinova
Ukraine
We had to create the MVP in 3 days, having nothing but an idea. We’ve developed our ToR by Day 2 and… started working non-stop! We had the job done 10 minutes before the final presentation :)
Nadzeya Tsaranok
Belarus
For me, it has really become a major breakthrough in the development of a new project – I had an idea, but lacked knowledge to develop an ICT tool
Andriy Gevyuk
Ukraine
With such strong mentors, we have rethought and reworked a lot in our HelpInvest project and can now make both technical and ideological changes in our project
Mikalai Kvantaliani
Belarus
Hackathon is a good chance to answer the question: to what extent the problem you’re dealing with is relevant to the community you’re going to impact with your activities
Oksana Boyarinova
Ukraine
You helped us to realize the main value of our project and focus on the main things!

Rules and Faq

How will the 2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon proceed?

The Hackathon will be held from July 10 until August 2 and will consist of several compulsory activities. It will start with an online introductory meeting of the Hackathon organisers, mentors and participants, where the authors of the ideas selected at the Ideathon will pitch their digital solutions to the Hackathon mentors and IT professionals and designers shortlisted by the EU-funded project. Then the participants will have up to 4 days to independently build their hack teams. Afterwards, the teams will have two weeks to consult mentors, participate in webinars and work on their prototypes. On the final day of the Hackathon, the teams will present their prototypes to the Hackathon organisers, mentors and other participants, who will vote for the best IT solution of the 2020 Hackathon.

What is the Online Regional Ideathon?

The 2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon is preceded by the EaP Online Regional Ideathon, an intensive two-week online incubation session of up to 36 civil society activists – authors of ideas of digital solutions shortlisted by the Hackathon organisers and Ideathon mentors. It will be held online from 12-28 June 2020. During the Ideathon the shortlisted applicants will present their ideas to the mentors and organisers and further develop their proposed projects. On the last days of the Ideathon, the applicants will pitch their improved ideas to the mentors and the organisers, who will select up to 15 ideas for participation in the 2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon.

What is the final presentation?

On the last day of the Hackathon, the hack teams must present their project to participants and mentors. There is no need to prepare a special presentation. You will need to demonstrate the maximum ready-to-go prototype of your solution and a clear vision of how this digital product will work.

How are the winners selected?

All participants will be asked to vote for each digital solution except their own, and will assess the tools according to four criteria: feasibility, impact, sustainability and replication potential. In addition, mentors will also evaluate all presented solutions. The organisers will provide a ranking based on overall scores. Up to seven teams will be invited to apply to the Civil Society Digitalisation Award of maximum EUR 10,000 allowing for the full-fledged development and launch of the proposed IT-product: the four highest-scoring teams based on the public vote and the three highest-scoring teams based on the mentors’ vote.

I have a question I could not get answered here.

If you have questions, write us at [email protected]. We will reply within 24 hours!

1. Description and Overall Objective

2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon brings together 45 civil society activists, IT professionals and designers from the Eastern Partnership region to work on software projects that would enable civil society better to contribute to reforms and democratic changes in their home countries. It is organised by the EU-funded Eastern Partnership Civil Society Facility project, with the valuable support of local partners.

2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon is held over 2-3 weeks in July 2020. It is preceded by the Online EaP Regional Ideathon on 12-28 June, where the shortlisted applicants will work on their ideas of IT solutions and present them to the organisers and mentors. Up to 15 best ideas will be selected for the participation in the 2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon.

The Hackathon aims to establish long-term cooperation between civil society and IT community that will result in new solutions for digital participation of citizens, better transparency and communication of governmental decisions and spending, broader participation in decision making process and advancement of public services.

2. Implementation

2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon seeks to strengthen the role of civil society in reforms and democratic changes through new IT solutions. The digital tools proposed by applicants should contribute to better dialogue and partnership between citizens, civil society and governments.

2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon is preceded by the Online EaP Regional Ideathon, an intensive two-week online incubation session of up to 36 civil society activists – authors of ideas of digital solutions who applied within the Call for Applications in January-February 2020 and were shortlisted by the Hackathon organisers and Ideathon mentors. The Ideathon will be held online from 12-28 June 2020. During the Ideathon the shortlisted applicants will present their ideas to the Hackathon mentors and organisers, improve their skills in designing a civic tech project, work individually with the mentors to improve and further develop their ideas, and prepare the final pitches. On the last days of the Ideathon, the applicants will pitch their improved ideas to the mentors and the organisers, who will select up to 15 ideas for participation in the 2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon.

Participants of the Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon will work in hack teams consisting of three experts: one subject-matter expert from a civil society organisation (CSO), one IT professional (front-end / back-end developers, web / mobile, full-stack, etc.) and a graphic designer. The IT professionals and designers in the hack teams will be formally engaged by the EU Project and will receive remuneration for their work on the prototypes

Participation in the 2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon is open to all citizens of EaP countries with a strong civil position and real experience of civic work, regardless of their experience in working for a CSO.

On the final day of 2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon, the participants and mentors will vote for the best IT solution developed during the Hackathon. Up to seven top-scoring ideas (four by the public vote and three by the mentors’ vote) will be nominated for Digitalisation for Civil Society Award, a special facility to support the full-fledged development of the best solution(s) designed at the 2020 Hackathon. Based on the applications received, the Selection Committee will choose one or more of the nominated ideas for the development and launch.

3. Cost of Participation

The cost of participation in the 2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon is covered by the European Commission.

4. Eligibility of Participants

Participation in the 2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon is open to citizens and residents and CSOs from the EaP countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Applications from grassroots activists and young IT professionals from across the region are encouraged.

5. How to Apply

A Call for Applications from civil society activists with ideas of digital solutions for the 2020 Hackathon was held from 31 January – 17 February. From this, the Selection Committee shortlisted 36 applications with ideas of digital solutions from 6 EaP countries, originally to be presented at the 2020 EaP Regional Ideathon planned for 13-14 March in Chisinau. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions, the face-to-face ideathon in Chisinau had to be cancelled for 2020 and replaced with the online process described in these Guidelines. However, the selection results remain valid for the 2020 Online EaP Civil Society Ideathon and Hackathon.

A Call for Applications from IT professionals and graphic designers for the 2020 Hackathon was held from 31 January – 6 March and will be re-opened on 5-29 June 2020.

To apply for participation in the 2020 Online EaP Civil Society Hackathon, interested IT professionals and graphic designers need to:

  1. Check the eligibility criteria;
  2. Collect all necessary supporting documents as described below;
  3. Fill in the online application form at http://ict.eapcivilsociety.eu/ and submit it before 23.00 (CET) on June 29, 2020.
6. More Information

For more details, please download and read Guidelines for Applicants. Questions to organisers may be sent by e-mail ([email protected]) no later one working day before the application deadline.

Contacts: