The delegate of the Consortium, Fran González, together with the rector of the University, Francisco Piniella, has presented this scientific event that has the sea as its protagonist and whose registration remains open until October 7
The challenges between the teams of the nine selected challenges will take place in different places in the Melkart and Heracles buildings on the weekend between October 9 and 11
The participating challenges finalize their teams with profiles according to challenges such as pollution and marine litter, blue tourism, blue education or fuel savings in navigation.
This event projects the potential of the province of Cádiz around the Blue Economy within the actions of the high-tech incubator of the Zona Base project promoted by Zona Franca with a subsidy from Feder Funds 2014-2020 “A way of making Europe”
Cádiz will be the epicenter of research in the Blue Economy on the weekend of October 9 to 11 with the celebration of the Ocean Hackathon 2020, which will be the first of the actions promoted by the high-tech incubator linked to the blue economy that the Free Zone of Cádiz is developing in the Base Zone, subsidized with Feder Funds.
This was explained today by the delegate of the Cádiz Free Trade Zone, Fran González, in the presentation of this international scientific event that is being held for the first time in Spain, specifically in Cádiz and Cartagena, and which will meet in the tax precinct of the capital. for 48 hours to experts and scholars in the field of oceans through 9 challenges selected this summer and competing to represent Cádiz in the final to be held in Brest.
In this way, Cádiz and simultaneously 16 other maritime cities in the world will become an ideation laboratory for the participating teams throughout the weekend that will have to develop, through technology and different variables and scientific data, those proposals and challenges of greatest interest for the protection of the oceans, aiming at the creation of tools for the improvement of the oceans, one of the activities included by the United Nations for the decade of marine sciences for a sustainable ocean.
Along with the delegate of the Free Trade Zone, the rector of the University of Cádiz (UCA), Francisco Piniella, and the vice-rector of Scientific and Technological Policy of the UCA, María Jesús Mosquera, participated in the event. The University of Cádiz and the Campus of International Excellence of the Sea CEIMAR, together with the CEEI Bahía de Cádiz, are collaborators of this initiative, not in vain seven of the nine competing challenges come from the university environment.
The delegate, Fran González, congratulated the selected challenges and stressed the importance of collaboration and joint work with the UCA, CeiMar and the CEEi Bahía de Cádiz to bring to light new projects and the enormous talent potential. existing in the province. In addition, he encouraged the participants to be part of the Incubazul incubator in the near future, developed by the Free Trade Zone, in which they have a valuable tool to implement their ideas linked to the blue economy and mature them with all the services it includes. this innovative project that houses Zona Base Cádiz.
For his part, the rector, Francisco Piniella, congratulated the Free Trade Zone for the organization of the event and for the collaboration and very positive synergies established between both institutions. Pinilla has pointed out that the University of Cádiz has responded to the Ocean Hackathon Cádiz with all its human capital for research and content transfer around the Blue Economy, an area in which the UCA has enormous strengths.
The rector has encouraged all the participants and has been convinced that the challenges will end successfully.
During the opening event, the nine challenges selected in Cádiz were presented one by one and some of their promoters took the opportunity to delve deeper into their theme and the profiles they are looking for to form their teams since registration is open until next 7 October. It must be remembered that all natural and legal persons, public administration, research groups, universities or technological centers can participate in this scientific event by presenting a challenge.
The nine challenges, to which a total of 20 people have already joined to form part of the teams, will work on topics ranging from the development of an app that allows evaluating the pollution of garbage in the sea, another app for the blue tourism, the assessment of garbage in the sea through drones, the use of marine garbage in the production of school materials for blue education or the development of a logarithm for fuel savings and pollution reduction in the maritime transport route, among others. All were selected meeting criteria of connection with the sea, use and availability of data, innovation and originality and conservation of the ocean.
Spatial circumstances due to Covid
The Cádiz Free Zone as organizer of the Ocean Hackathon has proposed holding the event taking into account the special circumstances derived from the pandemic and has reinforced all Covid-19 measures to maintain the in-person nature of the teams due to the richness it brings to the research the team dynamics and contact with the coaches, who will also be present along with members of the jury during the weekend to offer their services and see the evolution of the challenges.
In this context, the Consortium is going to enable the central patio and rooms of the Melkart building; the assembly hall and exhibition hall of the Heracles building; and the central plaza between both buildings, all of them spacious and conditioned spaces and services so that participants from all groups can meet and develop their challenges in optimal conditions.
After the two days of work, a winning team will be designated that will assess the environmental and social dimension, the business model, product quality and the use of data, among others. The team that obtains the highest score will compete representing Cádiz in the final in Brest next December.
The Ocean Hackathon® 2020 is the first internationalization action of the High Technology incubator linked to the Blue Economy developed by Zona Franca de Cádiz within its Zona Base Cádiz project, which is subsidized with funds granted by the Pluriregional Operational Program of Spain Feder 2014-2020 “A way of making Europe” and managed by the Incyde Foundation.
