Greek nominations in the pan-European innovation Hackathon EUvsVirus

117 innovative solutions against the coronavirus pandemics stood out and were awarded at the pan-European innovation Hackathon EUvsVirus for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. There was Greek participation in seven of the solutions that stood out, with one of them, Sewers4COVID, being included in the six major winners of the competition. The Sewers4COVID solution is a system that detects the dispersion of the new coronavirus, through the control of the sewerage network, providing valuable information for its treatment. 

Private and public bodies from Europe and around the world collaborated in the evaluation process. In addition to the best teams and solutions per key domain, awards were given to a winner and two runners-up for each of the 37 challenges in the online award ceremony, which took place on April 30, 2020. A total of 117 of the 2,150 solutions submitted by 20,900 participants from around the world stood out.

The solutions chosen in the marathon of ideas organised under the auspices of Ms. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, covered a range of areas such as health and life, teleworking and telecommunications, digital economy, etc. Solutions included a data platform that, through artificial intelligence, matches the needs of hospitals with available providers and resources; a system that remotely allocates store customers a priority number, thus ensuring social distancing for the safety of themselves and staff; an experiential platform that connects parents, teachers and children; an original system that helps small and medium-sized businesses receive short-term funding to meet their needs and n the many other innovative ideas.  were chosen

All winners will be invited to a Matchathon organised by the European Innovation Council (H2020), which was also the organiser of EUvsVirus.  Matchathon will take place from 22 to 25 May on the new EIC COVID platform (which will be operational at the end of May). This online meeting will facilitate 'matching' with end users, such as hospitals, and provide access to investors, companies, institutions and other agencies that provide funding opportunities from across the EU.

In total, more than € 100,000 has been pledged by partner organisations to be distributed among the winners of their choosing to reward developers for their hard work and new solutions to the global battle to save lives from the pandemic.

The Ministry of Digital Governance co-ordinated Greek  participation in this European hackathon through #GreeceVsVirus.

See winner details here.

Overall Domain winners: 

Health and life: Team Discover (Team Nationality: Hungary)

Our solution enables a highly scalable patient monitoring system that minimizes physical contact between nurses and patients, which also leads to smaller shortage of protective gear. Instead of occasional visits, our device measures vital parameters real-time and uploads each patient’s data into a central server. With the help of our dashboard, doctors and nurses can oversee hundred times more patients, while our automatic alert functionalities make it possible to diagnose deteriorating cases instantly and to reach quicker reaction times.  

Find out more here.

Business continuity: Linistry for safe retail (Team Nationality: Hungary)

Retailers need to solve the following issues for a safer retail: limit the number of customers in-store and manage queues at the entrance. Linistry provides a digital solution. Ready to scale.  

Find out more here.
 

Social and Political Cohesion: Αidbind (Team nationalities: Swiss, Ukranian, American, Indian)

We empower people to create their own personal and intimate village with friends, family, teachers and peers for experiential learning either virtually (amidst covid pandemic) or for in person, hands on, kinesthetic learning in the future. We offer a platform that allows parents, teachers and children to connect with like-minded peers through a shared economy system letting the world be their classroom. 

Find out more here.

Remote working & Education: The Village - Where The World Is Your Classroom ( team nationalities: Swiss, Ukranian, American, Indian)

We empower people to create their own personal and intimate village with friends, family, teachers and peers for experiential learning either virtually (amidst covid pandemic) or for in person, hands on, kinesthetic learning in the future. We offer a platform that allows parents, teachers and children to connect with like-minded peers through a shared economy system letting the world be their classroom. 

Find out more here.

Digital Finance: Bankera Business Care (team nationality: Lithuanian)

Financing for SME's that are experiencing cash-flow issues during COVID-19 using a guarantee from its business partner. Loan repayment is flexible and can be made after the quarantine ends.

Find out more here.

Others: Sewers4COVID  (team nationalities: Greek, Dutch, Spanish, British)
 

Integrating sewer surveillance and machine learning for an early warning on pandemic outbreaks, emergency response and recovery decision making in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Find out more here

Other Greek teams that participated and were nominated:

Health & Life
- SERS substrates for virus detection in exhaled droplets
- Dattum

Social and Political Cohesion
- Smart Screening Tool
- Guide-Your-Guide: Experience culture from home

Digital Finance
- Enforce
- Corazones against Covid19: fintech to multiply impact money

The National Documentation Centre (EKT) actively participated in the Hackathon EUvsVirus, providing mentoring and communication support. EKT is a National Contact Point for Horizon 2020, a member of StartupEurope4Growth through the STARTUP3 project, co-ordinator of the Enterprise Europe Network - Hellas consortium and a Greek hub of EIT Health, the initiative of the European Institute of Innovation &  Technology for Health.

EKT has created and updates on a daily basis the website www.ekt.gr/covid-19, which includes selected scientific publications with open access and useful links, providing valid information for  the research community and anyone interested in developmentsi n scientific research to combat the pandemic.