Congratulations to the 12 teams preselected for EU Datathon 2020, the EU open data competition! Now the real work begins for them to build an application in time for the European Week of Regions and Cities in October. This year’s EU Datathon adventure started in February with the call to data geeks worldwide to propose ideas for applications using open data from the EU institutions, agencies and bodies. The deadline for proposals was early May. The preselection jury had 121 pro
- 29 May 2020
Congratulations to the 12 teams preselected for EU Datathon 2020, the EU open data competition! Now the real work begins for them to build an application in time for the European Week of Regions and Cities in October.
This year’s EU Datathon adventure started in February with the call to data geeks worldwide to propose ideas for applications using open data from the EU institutions, agencies and bodies. The deadline for proposals was early May.
The preselection jury had 121 proposals to select, the biggest number ever during the competition’s history. ‘So many proposals were promising and inspirational, but we could only preselect 12 of them,’ said Daniele Rizzi, Policy Officer in ‘Data Policy and Innovation’ in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology.
Who are the 12 finalist teams?
These are the preselected teams. Looking at their origin, they stretch across Europe and beyond.
NB: Teams are listed alphabetically for each challenge. The nationalities of multinational teams are listed in the order declared by the teams themselves.
Next steps
The 12 teams now have 19 weeks to turn their proposal into a fully-working application. This period leaves them time to develop an application that could be marketable when unveiled during the European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels from 12 to 15 October 2020.
The final pitch of each team will happen on 15 October 2020. A jury, composed of experts from within and outside the EU public sector, will evaluate them. This will culminate in a prize-giving ceremony, including a public choice award that will give two tickets for this year's Web Summit in Lisbon: the public will vote on their preferred application during the last 4 days of the competition.
THE open data competition of the EU
In the space of just four years, EU Datathon has become a much-anticipated event in the open data community.
‘This annual event helps to promote and improve the open data made available by the EU institutions, agencies and bodies,’ says Rudolf Strohmeier, Director-General of the Publications Office of the European Union. ‘It does this by bringing together apps developers and data managers in the EU institutions to exchange on the potential and limitations of the data made available.
‘EU Datathon stimulates innovative reuse of that data, through apps and visualisations, helping young startups and other initiatives gain visibility and further support for their ideas.
‘This is all the more important now, when the EU needs to support the kick-start of its economies, severely slowed down by the COVID-19 crisis. The competition also contributes to the Commission priority of using digital solutions to help tackle the impact of this virus and its ramifications.’
Reaching out to the EU’s regions
EU Datathon 2020 is being organised in close collaboration with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) who will make it a highlight at this year's renowned European Week of Regions and Cities.
‘Through EU Datathon, we are delighted to strengthen our partnership with the Publications Office of the European Union,’ says Marc Lemaître, Director-General of DG REGIO.
‘In cohesion policy we are committed to open data and promote our unique monitoring of EU investment under the tag of #ESIFopendata. But openness is not enough. It is essential that data is accessible, contextualised and challenged.
‘I look forward to seeing the efforts of the participating teams to exploit open data to help address pressing local, regional and European challenges.’
Thanks to all the 121 participants
Finally, we would like to say a huge thanks to all the teams who sent in their project descriptions. The quality and innovativeness of many of them are inspirational. Stay connected with us and compete again next year.
Meanwhile, share your applications with us if you’ve used open data from the EU institutions, agencies and bodies. We’ll showcase them!
Watch this space for updates and information about the 12 teams. Follow on Twitter: @EU_opendata and @EUinmyRegion and the conversations around #EUdatathon and #ideas4EU.