datathon

Promote the use of open data in the European Union to generate new ideas, products and innovative services. That is the objective of EU Datathon, which this year celebrates its third edition, organized by the Publications Office and the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The competition offers participants the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in data-related issues and show their ideas to the world. To do this, they will have to develop applications - web or mobile -, visualizations and insights that combine at least one data set produced by the EU institutions, agencies and bodies with other sources of public or private data.

There are 3 different categories, one horizontal challenge and two thematic challenges:

• Challenge 1: 'Innovative ideas through open data'. Participants should develop innovative ideas using open data from the EU. Specifically, they must use at least one data set from the EU Open Data Portal, and combine it with other open or not data sources.
• Challenge 2: 'New insights in economics and finance'. Participants will have to develop a new insight, business model or business concept through open data. To do this, they must work with at least one dataset from the European Central Bank, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Budget, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Finance, the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund or Eurostat, and combine it with other open or private data sources.
• Challenge 3: 'Tackling climate change'. Participants will have to develop a new business concept or business model to fight against climate change using open data. To do this, they will have to combine at least one dataset in the domain of climate change and environment from the EU Open Data Portal, with any other source (for example, the FAO or the European Environment Agency).

Those interested in participating have to register their project using this online form, before March 24, 2019.

Then, the evaluation process begins, which will consist of two phases: preselection and final selection.

• Pre-selection: an independent experts jury will evaluate the projects description,  and select a maximum of 4 teams for each category, based on its relevance to digital transformation in Europe and the potential of the proposed solution, among other factors.
• Final selection: The preselected teams will be invited to develop their application or visualization in almost two months. Then, they will have to present their proyect during the final conference, which will take place on June 13 in Brussels. In addition to its relevance, the applications will be evaluated against some criteria such as solutions scalability or its interoperability to other data sources.

As a prize, € 25,000 will be allocated for each challenge, which will be split in the following order:

• First prize:  EUR 15,000
• Second prize: EUR 7,000
• Third prize: EUR 3,000

For all those interested, the organizers have prepared a series of webinars, to detail the bases of the contest and show some data sources that can be used.

If you have an idea, do not hesitate to participate!

The Council of the European Union and the Publications Office of the European Union have organised a datathon focused on reusing  data from the European Union's Open Data Portal. This datathon, which starts in October and lasts until 16 November, is focused on promoting the reuse of open data as a facilitator in the growing data economy to produce innovative applications and visualisations , as well as to stimulate the use of open data published by public administrations and to engage with new audiences.

In particular, the 2017 EU Datathon proposes the development of web applications or mobile solutions that work with at least one (or more) data set from EU institutions or bodies, and potentially combined with data from local, national or international government entities.

Employment, growth and investment; digital single market and democratic area are the three topic areas that the organisers propose to the participants in order to demonstrate how open data from public institutions can be used to address the specific challenges of politics or the society and create jobs and growth.

Interested parties may register until 8 October with an application proposal. Starting on 16 October, the pre-selected teams will be notified and the final application will be presented on 12 November. The final event of this Datathon will be held on 16 November 16 in Brussels.

The winning team will be invited to present their project in the European Big Data Value Forum, a key European event for industry professionals, business developers, researchers and policy makers to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the European data economy. The event will be held in Versailles, France, from 21 to 23 November 2017.

The EU Open Data Portal is the access point for open data produced by the institutions and agencies of the European Union.

Madrid City Council has announced the first edition of the Datathon and Data Journalism Awards, aimed at entrepreneurs, developers, designers, journalists and students interested in open data. The aim of this competition is to foster the re-use of public sector information, promote http://datos.madrid.es/ and convert it into, not only a point of access to local datasets, but into a tool to boost the development of innovative solutions based on open data.

The awards are divided into two different categories; firstly a Datathon where participants will develop an innovative solution based on the re-use of local datasets such as a computer applications a websites or a data visualizations.

Individually or in groups, projects must be submitted under  the AGPLv3 license and, in the case they include data from other sources, the participant must be entitled to use them in accordance with the regulations.

In parallel, the Data Journalism Awards presents two different categories; one for professionals, where newspaper articles written from 2015 to date will be assessed. And secondly, a category for students to award the best texts published in any type of media, or piece of work belonging to their studies. In both cases, the content must be related to the activity of the Madrid City Council, re-using the local open data.

To be eligible, the applicant have to submit his proposal according to the application form available on Madrid website or electronically on the website created for the Datathon and Data Journalism Awards. The deadline is 6th August.