R is one of the programming languages most popular in the world of data science.

It has a programming environment, R-Studio and a set of very flexible and versatile tools for statistical computing and creation of graphical representations.

One of its advantages is that functions can be easily expanded, by installing libraries or defining custom functions. In addition, it is permanently updated, since its wide community of users constantly develops new functions, libraries and updates available for free.

For this reason, R is one of the most demanded languages ​​and there are a large number of resources to learn more about it. Here is a selection based on the recommendations of the experts who collaborate with datos.gob.es and the user communities R-Hispanic and R-Ladies, which bring together a large number of users of this language in our country.

Online courses

On the web we can find numerous online courses that introduce R to new users.

Basic R course

• Taught by: University of Cádiz
• Duration: Not available.
• Language: Spanidh
• Free

Focused on students who are doing a final degree or master's project, the course seeks to provide the basic elements to start working with the R programming language in the field of statistics. It includes knowledge about data structure (vectors, matrices, data frames ...), graphics, functions and programming elements, among others.

Introduction to R

• Taught by: Datacamp
• Duration: 4 hours.
• Language: English
• Free

The course begins with the basics, starting with how to use the console as a calculator and how to assign variables. Next, we cover the creation of vectors in R, how to work with matrices, how to compare factors, and the use of data frames or lists.

Introduction to R

• Taught by: Anáhuac University Network
• Duration: 4 weeks (5-8 hours per week).
• Language: Spanish
• Free and paid mode

Through a practical approach, with this course you will learn to create a work environment for R with R Studio, classify and manipulate data, as well as make graphs. It also provides basic notions of R programming, covering conditionals, loops, and functions.

R Programming Fundamentals

• Taught by: Stanford School of Engineering
• Duration: 6 weeks (2-3 hours per week).
• Language: English
• Free, although the certificate costs.

This course covers an introduction to R, from installation to basic statistical functions. Students learn to work with variable and external data sets, as well as to write functions. In the course you will hear one of the co-creators of the R language, Robert Gentleman.

R programming

• Taught by: Johns Hopkins University
• Duration: 57 hours
• Language: English, with Spanish subtitles.
• Of payment

This course is part of the programs of Data science and Data Science: Basics Using R. It can be taken separately or as part of these programs. With it, you will learn to understand the fundamental concepts of the programming language, to use R's loop functions and debugging tools, or to collect detailed information with R profiler, among other things.

Data Visualization & Dashboarding with R

• Taught by: Johns Hopkins University
• Duration: 4 months (5 hours per week)
• Language: English
• Of payment

Johns Hopkins University also offers this course where students will generate different types of visualizations to explore the data, from simple figures like bar and scatter charts to interactive dashboards. Students will integrate these figures into reproducible research products and share them online.

Introduction to R statistical software

• Taught by: Spanish Association for Quality (AEC)
• Duration: From October 5 to December 3, 2021 (50 hours)
• Language: Spanish
• Of payment

This is an initial practical training in the use of R software for data processing and statistical analysis through the simplest and most common techniques: exploratory analysis and relationship between variables. Among other things, students will acquire the ability to extract valuable information from data through exploratory analysis, regression, and analysis of variance.

Introduction to R programming

• Taught by: Abraham Requena
• Duration: 6 hours
• Language: Spanish
• Paid (by subscription)

Designed to get started in the world of R and learn to program with this language. You will be able to learn the different types of data and objects that are in R, to work with files and to use conditionals, as well as to create functions and handle errors and exceptions.

Programming and data analysis with R

• Taught by: University of Salamanca
• Duration: From October 25, 2021 - April 22, 2022 (80 teaching hours)
• Language: Spanish
• Payment

It starts from a basic level, with information about the first commands and the installation of packages, to continue with the data structures (variables, vectors, factors, etc.), functions, control structures, graphical functions and interactive representations, among others topics. Includes an end-of-course project.

Statistics and R

• Taught by: Harvard University
• Duration: 4 weeks (2-4 hours per week).
• Language: English
• Payment

An introduction to basic statistical concepts and R programming skills required for data analysis in bioscience. Through programming examples in R, the connection between the concepts and the application is established.

For those who want to learn more about matrix algebra, Harvard University also offers online the Introduction to Linear Models and Matrix Algebra course, where the R programming language is used to carry out the analyzes.

Free R course

• Taught by: Afi Escuela
• Duration: 7.5 hours
• Language: Spanish
• Free

This course was taught by Rocío Parrilla, Head of Data Science at Atresmedia, in virtual face-to-face format. The session was recorded and is available through Yotube. It is structured in three classes where the basic elements of R programming are explained, an introduction to data analysis is made and visualization with this language is approached (static visualization, dynamic visualization, maps with R and materials).

R programming for beginners

• Taught by: Keepcoding
• Duration: 12 hours of video content
• Language: Spanish
• Free

It consists of 4 chapters, each of them made up of several short videos. The first "Introduction" deals with the installation. The second, called "first steps in R" explains basic executions, as well as vectors, matrices or data frames, among others. The third deals with the “Flow Program R” and the last one deals with the graphs.

Autonomous online course Introduction to R

• Taught by: University of Murcia
• Duration: 4 weeks (4-7 hours per week)
• Language: Spanish
• Free

It is a practical course aimed at young researchers who need to analyze their work data and seek a methodology that optimizes their effort.

The course is part of a set of R-related courses offered by the University of Murcia, onMultivariate data analysis methods, Preparation of technical-scientific documents and reports or Methods of hypothesis testing and design of experiments, among others.

Online books related to R

If instead of a course, you prefer a manual or documentation that can help you improve your knowledge in a broader way, there are also options, such as those detailed below.

R for Data Professionals. An introduction

• Author: Carlos Gil Bellosta
• Free

The book covers 3 basics in high demand by data professionals: creating high-quality data visualizations, creating dashboards to visualize and analyze data, and creating automated reports. Its aim is that the reader can begin to apply statistical methods (and so-called data science) on their own.

Learning R without dying trying

• Author: Javier Álvarez Liébana
• Free

The objective of this tutorial is to introduce people to programming and statistical analysis in R without the need for prior programming knowledge. Its objective is to understand the basic concepts of R and provide the user with simple tricks and basic autonomy to be able to work with data.

Statistical Learning

• Author: Rubén F. Casal
• Free

It is a document with the notes of the subject of Statistical Learning of the Master in Statistical Techniques. Has been written inR-Markdown using the package bookdown and is available in Github. The book does not deal directly with R, but deals with everything from an introduction to statistical learning, to neural networks, through decision trees or linear models, among others.

Statistical simulation

• Author: Rubén F. Casal and Ricardo Cao
• Free

As in the previous case, this book is the manual of a subject, in this case ofStatistical simulation of the Master in Statistical Techniques. It has also been written inR-Markdown using the package bookdown and is available in the repository Github. After an introduction to simulation, the book addresses the generation of pseudo-random numbers in R, the analysis of simulation results or the simulation of continuous and discrete variables, among others.

Statistics with R

• Author: Joaquín Amat Rodrigo
• Free

It is not a book directly, but a website where you can find various resources and works that can serve as an example when practicing with R. Its author is Joaquín Amat Rodrigo also responsible forMachine Learning with R.

Masters

In addition to courses, it is increasingly common to find master's degrees related to this subject in universities, such as:

Master in Applied Statistics with R / Master in Machine Learning with R

• Taught by: Esucela Máxima Formación
• Duration: 10 months
• Language: Spanish

The Esucela Máxima Formación offers two masters that begin in October 2021 related to R. The Master in Applied Statistics for Data Science with R Software (13th edition) is aimed at professionals who want to develop advanced practical skills to solve real problems related to the analysis, manipulation and graphical representation of data. The Master in Machine Learning with R Software (2nd edition) is focused on working with real-time data to create analytical models and algorithms with supervised, unsupervised and deep learning.

In addition, more and more study centers offer master's degrees or programs related to data science that collect knowledge on R, both general and focused on specific sectors, in their syllabus. Some examples are:

• Master in Data Science, from the Rey Juan Carlos University, which integrates aspects of data engineering (Spark, Hadoop, cloud architectures, data collection and storage) and data analytics (statistical models, data mining, simulation, graph analysis or visualization and communication) .
• Master in Big Data, from the National University of Distance Education (UNED), includes an Introduction to Machine Learning module with R and another of advanced packages with R.
• Master in Big Data and Data Science Applied to Economics, from the National University of Distance Education (UNED), introduces R concepts as one of the most widely used software programs.
• Master Big Data - Business - Analytics, from the Complutense University of Madrid, includes a topic on Data Mining and Predictive Modeling with R.
• Master in Big Data and Data Science applied to Economics and Commerce, also from the Complutense University of Madrid, where R programming is studied, for example, for the design of maps, among others.
• Master in Digital Humanities for a Sustainable World, from the Autonomous University of Madrid, where students will be able to program in Python and R to obtain statistical data from texts (PLN).
• Master in Data Science & Business Analytics, from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, whose objective is to learn and/or deepen in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Business Analytics, using R statistical software.
• Expert in Modeling & Data Mining, from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, where as in the previous case also works with R to transform unstructured data into knowledge.
• Master of Big Data Finance, where they talk about Programming for data science / big data or information visualization with R.
• Big Data and Business Intelligence Program, from the University of Deusto, which enables you to perform complete cycles of data analysis (extraction, management, processing (ETL) and visualization).

We hope that some of these courses respond to your needs and you can become an expert in R. If you know of any other course that you want to recommend, leave us a comment or write to us at dinamizacion@datos.gob.es.

The Regional Ministry of Transparency, Territorial Planning and External Action of the Regional Government of Castilla y León has announced this year the fifth edition of the open data competition. The aim of this competition is to recognise the creation of projects for mobile devices that provide ideas, studies, services or applications using the datasets offered by the Junta on its portal.

4 Categories are available

In addition to the traditional categories of "Ideas", "Products and Services" and "Educational Resources", last year "Data Journalism" was added as a novelty. In this fifth edition, these four categories will continue:

• Ideas: this category rewards projects that describe an idea designed to create studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices.
• Products and Services: this category includes projects that provide studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices. This category reserves an award for students.
• Teaching Resources: this award is aimed at the creation of new and innovative open teaching resources (published under Creative Commons licences is mandatory) that support classroom teaching.
• Data Journalism: this category, which was new last year, repeats again this year to reward relevant journalistic pieces published or updated in any medium, whether written or audio-visual.

These are the prizes in each category

In each category, a general first and second prize will be awarded, and in the case of "Products and services", one prize will be awarded to students enrolled in official university or non-university education. In the case of minors, a teacher from the school to which they belong will be responsible for the project submitted as a candidature.

The total amount of this fifth edition will be €12,000 and will be distributed as follows:

1. Ideas Category

• First prize: 1.500€.
• Second prize: 500€.

2. Products and Services Category

• First prize: 2.500€.
• Second prize: 1.500€.
• Third prize: 500€.
• Student prize: 1.500€.

3. Educational Resource Category

• First prize: 1.500€.

4. Data Journalism Category

• First prize: 1.500€.

• Second prize: 1.000€.

How to participate

The deadline for submitting your proposal is now open. The deadline for submitting applications is 13 July.

Applications can be submitted in two ways: in person or electronically.

You can consult the legal bases of this competition through this link.

Hackathon Lovers is a community of hackathon lovers that holds regular events with a focus on solving technical problems in an innovative way.

In this interview they tell us about the advantages of this format and the challenge of going from face-to-face to online format.

Full interview:

1. Can you briefly explain what Hackathon Lovers is?

Hackathon Lovers is a technology company that organizes its own hackathons and helps other companies organize their own as long as they comply with non-abusive conditions for the participants that we have included in our ethical code (https://hackathonlovers.com/#principios).

2. What are the advantages of hackathons compared to other types of events?

Perhaps the biggest advantage is that with the solutions that are developed we can help solve real problems.

More bonds are created between the participants than in other events since you are working with them side by side for a couple of days without stopping and above all you learn a lot from your colleagues.

For the participants who are very juniors, they are a place where they can put into practice the knowledge they have, learn from those who already have more experience, make new contacts and, above all, who come out with projects that they can teach to find work.

3. One objective of this type of event is to address certain challenges that can be solved using public data. Would you like to highlight, by way of example, any of these and briefly comment on what kind of solutions the participants propose?

The use of public data in hackathons is quite common, since that public data can be used in conjunction with other APIs to develop better products than without that data.

For example, at #Hack4Good the map of the evolution of air pollution in Madrid was developed. At #DataFestMAD, a team developed an application that showed the optimal route between two points avoiding the pollution areas, and at #TWOC15 , the winning team developed an application that shows the reputation of places (neighborhoods) based on open data on crime, facilities and infrastructures.

The use of public data in hackathons is quite common, since that public data can be used in conjunction with other APIs to develop better products than without that data.

4. What kind of profiles come to your meetings?

This question depends on the challenge the hackathon is addressing. Normally the people who attend are from the technology sector and within this we can find profiles of web development, design, data analysis, blockchain ... Although we have also organized other types of hackathons in which people from the health sector (#Searchathon), legal (#JustiApps) and renewable energy (#Renovathon) have participated, among others because the challenge was more focused on these sectors .

5. What advice would you give to those who want to participate in a hackathon?

Let them sign up without fear. To participate in a hackathon you don't have to be a supercrack. The idea is to get together with other people with more / less level and work side by side to come up with a solution to the problem that arises, meet people from the sector or from other sectors, have a good time and learn.

6. The restrictions caused by the pandemic have been a challenge for you, how have you dealt with it?

A little because we have had to change and rethink the dynamics of a hackathon to adapt it to the online environment by using different platforms for communication during the hackathon. So we had to find which tools provided us with the functionalities we needed and at the same time that they were easy for the participants to use, and we even had to do some small development to facilitate our work.

7. What types of open data have you used in your projects and what data would you like to work with?

At the #OpenApiHackathon on Open Banking organized by Liberbank and atmira, Liberbank made available to the participants its catalog of Open Banking APIs developed following the technical guides of Directive 2015/2366 on payment services in the internal market, PSD2, standard community that obliges financial entities to share their data.

The API catalog dealt with Payments, Oauth Provider, Accounts, PSD2 Registration, and there were two work environments, a first using a Sandbox development environment and later a second step to Pro.

8. Finally, how can interested people follow Hackathon Lovers and collaborate with you?

You can follow us on twitter and join our meetup, where we have a mailing list in which we announce both the hackathons that we organize and those that we see that comply with our code of ethics.

As every year, the GBIF Secretariat, on behalf of the network of National Participants (including Spain), has opened the call for applications for the Young Investigator Award 2021.

This call is aimed at graduate students who wish to work with GBIF biodiversity data in their master's or doctoral studies. The main objective is to recognize and encourage innovative research and discoveries in the field of biodiversity informatics by graduate students.

This year the program will award two prizes of €5,000 each. This financial endowment will be used to recognize the work of two early career researchers, preferably one master's and one doctoral student.

Eligibility Criteria

All candidates enrolled in the program must be enrolled in a graduate degree program to be eligible for the Young Researchers 2021 award. In addition, candidates must be from one of the countries participating in GBIF or be a student at an institution located in one of these nations.

Students must be nominated by the heads of delegation and node directors of the GBIF participating countries.

Registration deadlines by country for 2021

Although the deadline set by the GBIF Secretariat for the receipt of nominations is June 21, the deadlines of each nation must be applied. In the case of Spain, the date is May 31.

• May 30: United Kingdom
• May 31: Argentina, Australia, Colombia, Spain and the United States.

The new deadlines for each country will be published on the call page, although you can also follow the news about new dates on the GBIF Twitter account through the hashtag #YoungResearchers.

Application submission process

Students who wish to participate must submit an application to the Head of Delegation or node administrator of their country as a GBIF Associate or Voting Participant (you can consult the complete list here), which will be reviewed at the national level. In the case of Spain, you must submit your proposal to info@gbif.es.

Then, each national head of delegation or node administrator will be able to send a maximum of two nominees per country to the GBIF Secretariat.

It is important to ensure that submissions are complete and include all the necessary elements listed on this website, as incomplete proposal submissions will not be considered.

Winner selection criteria

The GBIF Scientific Committee will ultimately analyse the nominations that have been submitted to select the final winners of the awards. This selection will be made on the basis of three criteria:

• Innovation and originality
• Strategic use and significance of data accessed through GBIF
• Effectiveness and measurable impact on the advancement of biodiversity informatics and biodiversity conservation.

If your proposal is not selected, the program offers the possibility of updating it and resubmitting it in subsequent years' competitions.

What is GBIF?

GBIF is an intergovernmental initiative composed of countries and international organizations that are committed to collaborate in advancing free and open access to biodiversity data. Through its nodes, participating countries provide data on species records based on common standards and open source tools that allow them to share information. These data come from many sources, from specimens held in museums and collected in the 18th and 19th centuries to geotagged photos taken with smartphones and shared by amateur naturalists.

It currently has more than 1.6 billion records and 57,000 datasets of great utility for researchers conducting studies related to biodiversity and the general public.

GBIF-ES is the National Biodiversity Information Node sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and managed by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The creation of this node was a consequence of the adhesion of our country to GBIF through the signing of the first "Memorandum of Understanding

Winning projects of the 4th Castilla y León Government Open Data Competition

Many open data initiatives have taken advantage of the end of the summer and the return to school to launch competitions to promote the creation of value services based on open data. In addition to the recent launch of the Aporta 2020 Challenge, which on this occasion focuses on solving the challenges associated with the education sector, new editions of competitions such as BiscayAPP, the Barcelona Dades Obertes Challenge and the Castilla y León Open Data Competition have just closed their registration period.

The latest to join the list is the Basque Government, which together with the Provincial Councils of Alava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa and the City Councils of Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián and Vitoria-Gasteiz, has just launched two open data competitions, which aim to reward the best ideas and applications/services created from any open data catalogue in the Basque Autonomous Community.

• Ideas Contest: The Ideas Contest is aimed at both individuals and companies. They only have to present an original idea that can be used to create a service, studio, visualization, web or mobile application.
• Applications Contest: The Applications Contest is aimed at individuals and companies that, individually or in groups, present a project that is accessible to all citizens via the web.

In both cases, the idea or project must be based on the use of at least one set of data from one of the following catalogues:

• Open Data Euskadi
• Araba Irekia
• Gipuzkoa Irekia
• Bilbao Open Data
• Open Data Vitoria-Gasteiz
• Datos abiertos del Ayuntamiento de Donostia-San Sebastián 
• Open Data Bizkaia

Two winners will be chosen, who will receive a diploma and a prize of 5,000 and 3,000 euros in the case of the Ideas Competition and 10,000 and 8,000 euros in the case of the Applications Competition.

Registration is free and will be open from 8 October to 19 November, both inclusive.

More information at Open Data Euskadi

One more year, the Aporta Initiative launches the Aporta Challenge, a competition aimed at promoting the creation of solutions based on public sector information, which help solve challenges in specific sectors that affect society as a whole. This time, the chosen sector is education.

A teaching model based on data and disruptive technologies

The current context of a global pandemic has marked a before and after in the education sector. Although there has been talk for years about the benefits of incorporating new technologies in the teaching-learning process, in what has come to be called Edtech, this trend has become even more necessary in the new post-COVID-19 educational ecosystem.

Edtech refers to all kinds of digital or technological innovations that aim to improve education. This will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the sector and promote more universal access to knowledge. A field where open data has great potential, as the European Union clearly states. Open data can serve as the basis for solutions that drive automated and personalized online processes based on disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, while promoting greater effectiveness and inclusion, and helping to meet sustainable development goals.

Under the conviction that digital technology enriches learning in a wide variety of ways and offers new opportunities, the European Commission itself launched the Digital Education Action Plan. Among other issues, said plan highlights the importance of promoting innovation in the sector by holding hackathons aimed at developing solutions that respond to the main challenges in education.

Challenges to solve in the Challenge Aporta 2020

In this context, the new edition of the Aporta Challenge is being developed, which seeks original ideas and prototypes that provide new opportunities to capture, analyze and use data intelligence in the development of solutions in the educational field. These solutions can be aimed at solving challenges such as the following:

• Encourage more effective teaching and improve students' experience in the learning process from home or the classroom. Address the growing need for personalized education and identify mechanisms that contribute to responding to the evaluation of learning in non-face-to-face digital environments.
• Promote the dissemination of teaching-learning experiences among the educational community.
• Accelerate the development of skills in teaching professionals to ensure that students learn more and better, in addition to reinforcing the learning of skills related to data analysis and emerging technologies.
• Make learning more attractive and help solve behavior or inattention problems of students.
• Facilitate student tutoring and improve decision-making.
• Respond to Internet security and / or data privacy problems.
• Improve the efficiency and effectiveness in the management of students, educational resources, institutions, etc.
• Introduce students to STEM fields and encourage their training in these subjects.
• Devise solutions aimed at reinforcing the prestige and social recognition of the teaching function.

How does the Aporta 2020 Challenge work?

The Aporta Challenge is developed in 2 phases:

Phase I: Ideas competition

Participants must present an original idea, developed specifically for this contest, and that responds to the proposed theme. The ideas and prototypes that are presented must use at least one data source generated by the Public Administrations, whether national or international. Additionally, its use can be combined with data sets exposed by other sources, public or private.

The ideas presented will be evaluated by the jury based on 5 criteria:

• Relevance
• Quality and overall clarity of the proposed idea
• Impact on the improvement of the educational system of the proposed idea
• Sources of utility
• Promotion of the quality of life of vulnerable groups

The 10 ideas with the highest score will go to phase 2.

Phase II: Prototype development and face-to-face exhibition

The authors of the 10 selected ideas will develop a prototype associated with the proposed idea. From the moment they communicate their pass to phase 2, participants will have a minimum period of 3 months to develop the prototype. A functional exemplification or simulation is sought that allows some interaction, a visualization or a multimedia solution that allows the proposal to be exemplified in a tangible prototype.

The three best prototypes will be selected according to the assessment of the established criteria:

• Easy to use
• Technical quality of the prototype
• Viability

What do the winning teams get?

The three selected prototypes will receive the following financial award:

• First classified: € 4,000
• Second place: € 3,000
• Third place: € 2,000

What do I have to do to participate?

The Aporta Challenge is aimed at individuals and legal entities from the European Union, who can participate individually or in teams.

Those interested in participating must submit their idea through this form at the Red.es website before November 18 at 1:00 p.m.

To present the idea, it is necessary to have an electronic certificate, so it is recommended not to rush the established deadline. Our support team will be at your disposal for any questions that may arise in the email desafio_aporta@datos.gob.es.

More information in the bases of the Challenge Aporta 2020.

If you want to contribute to getting this information to others, we offer you materials that will make it easier for you:

• Promotional materials
• Promotional video

The Junta de Castilla y León, through its Ministry of Transparency, Territorial Planning and Foreign Action, organizes, for yet another year, its open data contest. This is the fourth edition, after the appointments of 2013, 2014 and 2018, in which more than 100 projects were presented in total.

The purpose of the contest is to promote the use of the data published in the Castilla y León open data catalog, through the recognition of projects already carried out and the promotion of new ideas.

4 categories available

To the traditional categories of "Ideas", "Products and Services" and "Didactic Resources", this year adds a novelty: the award for "Data Journalism". Each of these categories is detailed below:

• Ideas Category: Reward projects that describe an original idea to create studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices. The idea must be unpublished and not have been previously awarded.

• Products and services category: Real projects are sought that provide studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices, and which are accessible to all citizens via the web through a URL.

• Teaching Resources Category: This award is aimed at creating new and innovative open teaching resources (published under Creative Commons licenses) to support classroom teaching.  

• Category Data journalism: The novelty of this year. It seeks to reward journalistic pieces (written or audiovisual) published in a printed or digital media, including blogs. The works must have been published in the 12 months prior to the call and have not been awarded previously.

In all categories it is necessary that the project -or idea- presented uses at least one data source published in the Open Data Portal of the Junta de Castilla y León. It should be noted that the resource can be exploited using the data analysis portal. These data sets may be combined with others available from other sources, whether public or private, and at local, regional, national or international level.

All applications will be evaluated by a jury, based on criteria such as utility, originality and quality.

What does the prize consist of?

In each category there will be a first and second general prize, and one aimed at students enrolled in university or non-university education, provided it is official. In the case of minors, a teacher from the center to which they belong will be responsible for the project submitted as a candidate.

The award will consist of a financial award and advice on open data. The total amount will be 10,500 euros, which will be distributed among the winners in the 4 categories as follows:

1. Category Ideas  

• First prize € 1,500.

• Second prize € 500.

2. Category Products and services  

• First prize € 2,500.

• Second prize € 1,500.

• Student award: € 1,500.

3. Category Didactic resource. 

• First prize € 1,000.

4. Category Data journalism  

• First prize € 1,500.

• Second prize € 500.

What should I do to participate?

The deadline for submitting applications will be open from July 31 to September 30, 2020.

Applications for participation can be submitted both in person and electronically.

You can see the regulatory bases of the contest at this link.

For the eighth consecutive year, NASA organizes Space Apps, an international hackathon, where participating teams will have to solve real challenges related to Earth observation.

What does it consist of?

Programmers, scientists, storytellers, designers, and anyone interested in space science and data exploration can share their knowledge to design innovative solutions that respond to issues related to different categories:

• Earth's oceans
• Our moon
• Planets near and far
• To the stars
• Living in our world
• Invent ypour own challenge

To respond to these challenges, participants will have to use free and open data sets available in the NASA open data portal.

The solutions to the challenges can be technological, scientific or even artistic: from designing a low-cost method to provide internet connection in remote areas or improving NASA's predictive models, to creating a game that allows customizing stars and planets or devising mechanisms that help to better communicate the rising sea levels.

When and where?

The hackathon is celebrated on the weekend of October 18-20 in different cities that will receive the participants simultaneously. In the case of Spain, the events will take place in Alicante, Almería, Burgos, Madrid, Murcia, Salamanca, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza. However, citizens can still hack virtually from just about anywhere on planet Earth.

Although citizens can participate independently, it is recommended to be part of a team.

Why participate?

In 2018, more than 18.000 people from 75 countries and 200 cities around the world participated in the Space App.

The advantages of participating in a hackathon are multiple. On the one hand, it allows expanding the experience in a specific area, improving creativity and promoting the acquisition of new technical skills. On the other hand, having to work in -often multidisciplinary- teams helps to develop some of the so-called soft skills, such as organization or effective communication.

If you are interested in participating in the Space App 2019, you can register through the following link.