Two Spanish projects among the finalists of the EU Datathon 2019

The third edition of the EU Dathaton 2019 has come to an end. 99 projects were presented, and 12 was selected to pitched their project at the final of this competition, which seeks to promote the use of open data in EU countries to generate new ideas, products and innovative services in 3 categories:

• Challenge 1: 'Innovative ideas through open data'. Participant developed innovative ideas using open data and combined with other open or private data sources.
• Challenge 2: 'New insights in economics and finance'. Participants had to develop a new perspective, concept or business model through open data.
• Challenge 3: 'Tackling climate change', aimed at the creation of new concepts or business models that help fight against climate change using open data.

Among the 12 finalists, we could find two Spanish proposals: EnvyRState, which finish in the fourth position in Challenge 2, and The Blue Time Machine (BTM), which win the second prize in Challenge 3.

• EnvyRState is a project of the University of Castilla La Mancha, presented by Emilio López Cano. EnvyRState uses open data from Eurostat and the European Central Bank, among other sources. It is a web tool, interactive and dynamic, that allows to visualize and analyze different effects of the real estate market in the environment. This project includes heat maps and charts, and continuously updates conclusions about the real estate market.
• The Blue Time Machine (BTM), presented by Paula Camus, researcher at IH Cantabria, is a digital representation of the past, present and future conditions of our "blue planet". Its objective is to better understand our environment to deal with climate change. For this, it uses data from Copernicus and EMODnet.

Both projects were presented at a final act in Brussels, on June 13, where a jury chose the winners of each category:

• Challenge 1. The first prize went to the Smartfiles Network, an Austrian network that aims to make national and EU jurisprudence accessible from any PDF. The second and third prize went to Euromaps, a Belgian platform that uses maps to tell stories with data about Europe, and Politicindex, a German platform that summarizes the promises and achievements of politicians and allows users to compare and filter.

• Challenge 2. EconCartography, a map that shows the European economies and identifies their growth opportunities, elaborated by an Italian team, won the first prize. The second prize went to Investment Info, a Finnish application that uses and compiles investment and macroeconomic data to provide an overview of the investment atmosphere and make forecasts; while the third prizes went to Bizmap, a French decision-making tool that allows small and medium-sized companies to visualize the most economically attractive regions of the EU for international expansion.

• Challenge3. The winner was the Greek team creator of Chloe Irrigation Systems, a platform that monitors and optimizes irrigation systems using artificial intelligence to reduce water waste and increase crop yields. The second place went to the Spanish The Blue Time Machine (BTM), and third place went to the Belgian MindYourFoot, a Belgian tool that aims to achieve reductions in carbon emissions through awareness and advice.

The 3 teams that won the competition received €15,000 each, the second prize was €7,000 and the third prize € 3,000.

All information about the competition at: https://publications.europa.eu/en/web/eudatathon