The Delegation of the European Union to Azerbaijan and the Young European Ambassadors will organize a two-day food hackathon on November 27-28 in Baku in collaboration with the SUP Accelerator and FemTech, AzVision.az reports. 

This hackathon is aimed at promoting healthy eating habits, raising the profile of locally produced food, and creating innovative solutions for food-related challenges in Azerbaijan. 

The main theme of the hackathon will be intensifying the urban-rural link and increasing national consumption of locally made food products. The real-life challenges that the participants will be working on will relate to the food grown and/or produced in the TDs in the Lankaran region and will be closely linked to the challenges identified by the expert assessments of the project TDs. 

The hackathon format was selected because it is known to many young Azerbaijanis, and because it is a proven model for generating feasible yet out-of-the-box solutions over a short period of time. During the educational sessions, the participants will learn about the most salient global, regional, and local challenges and opportunities related to the production, distribution, and consumption of food. The knowledge that the participants gain through presentations by local and international experts, including representatives of the project consortia, and review of international and regional case studies, will inform their own projects that will be developed during the hackathon weekend. 

The main target audience of the hackathon will be 100 young Baku residents from various industries, such as data and computer science, catering, marketing, start-ups, agriculture, public administration, etc. Interested candidates will be invited to submit an application including their academic background and work experience, statement of interest, and a brief presentation of their solution to one of the challenges identified by the expert assessments of the project TDs. The applications close on November 22 at 08:00  am. (Baku time). 

The participants will be selected by a committee comprised of the representatives of the EPF, CRF, the EU, and local experts on tourism and business development. Working in mixed teams, each including representatives of at least three different industries, the participants will be able to draw on their diverse backgrounds in order to devise innovative cross-disciplinary solutions.  On November 27, the selected participants will meet the mentors. 

On November 28, the participants will present their solutions to an interdisciplinary panel of judges comprised of Peter Michalko, Head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan and the heads of the leading local and international institutions as well as potential private and public investors, representatives of the project consortia. The EU Azerbaijan will identify local investors through the State Tourism Agency, the State Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency, and public and private business incubators operating in Baku (e.g. Barama, Social Innovation Lab, Innovations Center, Baku Business Factory, and SUP). 

The winning team will receive EUR 5,000, and the second and the third teams will each receive EUR 3,000 and EUR 1,000 respectively to prototype and/or roll out a pilot version of their solution and access to expert consultations to help them develop a feasible business plan, when applicable. 

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