YOUR PORTAL TO THE FUTURE

2,000 total participants will collaborate to provide new solutions to complex 21st-century challenges in a 48-hour hackathon in Groningen on November 13-15. 105 selected teams from around the world will co-create paradigm-shifting solutions with the challenge leads (governments, corporations, and non-profit organizations), their stakeholders and end-users.

More than 300 experts, including legal advisors and financial regulators, will be there to support the teams.

Odyssey Hackathon provides a new space where everyone (and everything) can become part of a new solution to the challenges we face in the 21st century. The complex problems teams will tackle involve many stakeholders and cannot be solved by a single company, industry or state.

The challenges of the hackathon have a global societal and economic impact, each of them tied directly to one or more UN Sustainable Development Goals. Teams will be able to impact a variety of industries and make their mark on the energy transition, conscious cities, critical infrastructure, logistics, public safety, nature conservation, real estate, healthcare, and digital identity.

The 2020 Odyssey challenges were contributed (among others) by: Vattenfall, VMware, DAML, City of The Hague, Enexis, KLM Cargo, TVM Insurance, the Dutch National Police, the Dutch Blockchain Coalition, the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Grid Singularity, Engie, City of Groningen, UMCG, the Dutch Land Registry (Kadaster), the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the International Council for Environmental Law, and the Dutch Ministry of Defence.

Scaling and adopting after the hackathon

All teams get access to ecosystems related to their challenge for further prototype development and pilot launch after the hackathon. Besides being supported in scaling their solution, the best-performing teams will also get €200,000 in total cash rewards.

Who should apply?

The hackathon is optimized for startups, established startups, scale-ups, SMEs, corporate teams, as well as community and student teams who want to work on one of the challenges outlined.

How to prepare and apply

Team applications are open from January 20 until February 24 (2020).

Per challenge, five teams will be selected; 105 in total.

To find out more about the challenges and get a head start in preparing for the hackathon, prospective teams are welcome to join Odyssey Connect on February 4-5 in the Hague: https://connect.odyssey.org/

Inspirational resources

Get a glimpse of what Odyssey Hackathon is about!

Watch the 2019 event aftermovie: https://youtu.be/wnhpSLb30BU

Watch the 2020 hackathon trailer: https://youtu.be/rsINLKEEK9Y

How does the Odyssey Hackathon work? https://youtu.be/XCjeiW9NqPE

Opening of the 2020 Odyssey season: https://youtu.be/OtV8eBuprIE

The 2019 hackathon solutions: https://solutions.odyssey.org/