A series of Regional Hackathons will be organized by the EfxINNOs partners in Greece, Georgia, Bulgaria, Türkiye and Romania, creating localized innovation hubs that address region-specific marine environmental challenges while promoting transnational collaboration across the Black Sea Basin and the North Aegean Sea.
Each Regional Hackathon will bring together students, researchers, software developers, marine scientists, engineers, policy stakeholders and young professionals to collaboratively develop innovative tools and applications based on the project’s marine monitoring datasets and technologies. The events will focus on topics such as marine biodiversity mapping, automated seabed image analysis, marine litter detection, ecosystem health assessment, data visualization and AI-driven environmental monitoring solutions. Participants will be encouraged to propose practical and scalable solutions tailored to the environmental and socio-economic priorities of each region, while also exchanging knowledge and best practices among countries.
The regional events will additionally serve as preparatory platforms for the Final EfxINNOs Hackathon, which will be organized in Varna, Bulgaria, bringing together the most promising teams, ideas and prototypes developed throughout the project. The concluding Hackathon will function as a large-scale collaborative innovation event and networking platform, showcasing the achievements of the regional Hackathons, strengthening cross-border cooperation and promoting the development of advanced digital solutions that support sustainable marine governance, ecosystem protection and Blue Growth policies across the wider Black Sea region.