What is the EU Datathon 2019?

The Publications Office of the European Union and the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union are the organisers of the EU Datathon 2019, which is a competition intended to highlight the potential of linking EU data and national data as well as to promote innovation and digitalisation opportunities by using open data. The availability of these open datasets can be characterised as ‘big data’ requiring data science skills.

Participants are invited to develop applications, visualisations and insights using at least one dataset produced by the EU Institutions, Agencies and bodies available on the EU Open Data Portal and combine it with at least one dataset on the European Data Portal, the European Central Bank, Eurostat Website and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The competition is supported by the European Parliament’s Preparatory Action “Linked Open Data in the European Public Administration” and the European Commission ISA² programme (Interoperability solutions for public administrations, businesses and citizen).

The partners of the EU Datathon 2019 are:

• Eurostat;
• The European Central Bank;
• The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Budget;
• The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs;
• The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy;
• The European Environment Agency;
• The European Investment Bank;
• The European Investment Fund;
• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations;
• The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.

What are the objectives?

• To find new suitable approaches and solutions through the use of open data to an identified need or problem.
• To produce innovative applications, including visualisations.
• To showcase opportunities for a:
• concrete business model,
• social enterprise, or
• reusability concept for the open data community.
• To apply big data methodology for generating new insights.
• To stimulate the use of open data issued from public administrations.

The rules are based on Article 206 and 207 of the financial regulation. The competition will respect the principles of transparency and equal treatment.

• The EU Datathon 2019 is open to anyone (statisticians, economists, researchers, computer programmers, data journalists, data community activists, data scientists, graphic and interface designers, IT project managers, university students and PhD students, etc.) who is interested in creating a profit or non-profit (social) business model through data exploration and/or in creating open data prototype products based on open and public data.
• The EU Datathon 2019 is open to teams based in the EU or in European Free Trade Association countries. Teams can be composed of one or more individuals, one or more companies or one or more other legal entities.
• Finalists from the EU Datathon 2017 and EU Datathon 2018 can only participate with a new project for this year’s competition.
• The EU Datathon 2019 is not open to staff working in the EU Institutions, Agencies, bodies and partnering organisation.

The EU Datathon 2019 consists of one horizontal challenge and two thematic challenges. Each challenge is organised as a separate competition of equal importance, under the umbrella of the EU Datathon competition (separate registration, shortlisted teams, presentations, and prizes).

Teams may participate in any of the following three challenges but with only one proposal per challenge.

Challenge 1: ‘Innovative ideas through open data’

• Condition: combine at least one dataset from the EU Open Data Portal with one from the European Data Portal or any other dataset (open or not).
• Goal: create innovative ideas through open data.

Challenge 2: ‘New insights in economics and finance’

• Condition: combine at least one dataset from the European Central Bank, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Budget, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Finance, the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund or Eurostat with data from any other data source (open or not), such as the EU Open Data Portal and/or the European Data Portal.
• Goal: create a new insight, business models or business concept through open data.

Challenge 3: ‘Tackling climate change’

• Condition: combine at least one dataset in the domain of climate change and environment from the EU Open Data Portal with one from the European Data Portal, Eurostat, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy, the European Environment Agency, the FAO and/or the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission or any other dataset (open or not).
• Goal: create a new business model or business concepts through open data in the domain of climate change and environment.

What should the result be?

The result should be a new, original mobile or web application, visualisation or demonstration of applying data science by linking datasets for generating new insights. The result should address a need or problem of free choice and present its relevance in context. Explanatory webinars will be set up for participants to obtain more information on the features and datasets of the challenges.

Participants may request any clarification on the competition up to 5 working days before the deadline of the submission.

Requests for clarification should be submitted in writing to the following email address: op-datathon@publications.europa.eu.

All questions and answers will be published on the EU Datathon 2019 website.

The evaluation process will consist of two phases: preselection and final selection.

Phase 1 — Preselection

Preselection will take place after the deadline of the submission of project descriptions.

Project descriptions within each challenge will be evaluated by an independent preselection jury that shall be composed of experts from within and outside the EU institutions and agencies.

During this phase, the jury will assess each submitted proposal against the preselection award criterion (see table below). For each challenge a maximum of four teams having scored the highest number of points will be preselected. All teams will be notified about the results of the preselection of the challenge they took part in.

Phase 2 — Final selection

The preselected teams (maximum four per challenge) will be invited to develop their applications which must be submitted 1 week before the final event and then present them in Brussels during the conference held on 13 June 2019. Structure and training for the presentations will be offered if needed.

The final applications within each challenge will be evaluated by one final jury, which will be composed of at least five experts from within and outside the EU Institutions and Agencies.

The applications will be evaluated against the following final award criteria.

Step 1— Launch of competition

The EU Datathon 2019 is published on the Publications Offices website on 28 January 2019.

The competition starts with explanatory webinars addressing the three different challenges and will allow teams to learn more about the datasets they are interested in.

Step 2 — Submission of project descriptions

Teams register their project descriptions for their mobile or web application using the online registration form at the latest by 23:59:59 (CET) on 24 March 2019.

Step 3 — Notification of shortlisted teams

The project descriptions are assessed by the jury of the preselection phase. All participating teams will be notified about the results within their challenge via email by 5 April 2019.

Step 4 — Submission of the application

Shortlisted teams should submit their final proposals for evaluation by 7 June 2019 to the Publications Office via the following email address: op-datathon@publications.europa.eu.

Step 5 — Final conference in Brussels

The preselected teams (represented by a maximum of two members) are invited to the final conference in Brussels on 13 June 2019, which will include:

• presentations and demonstrations of the proposal by the teams followed by Q&A;
• speeches from international open data experts on relevant topics;
• announcement of the winners and awards ceremony.

The prize money is EUR 75 000 in total (EUR 25 000 for each challenge) and will be split in the following order for each challenge.

The payments of prizes are subject to the registration of the winners in the legal entity (LEF) and bank account file (BAF) database of the European Commission. For this purpose, after being notified of the prize winners are required to provide the necessary supporting documents duly signed and stamped where necessary. Additional information as well as the forms for the creation of the LEF/BAF can be downloaded here.

The Publications Office and any partners take no responsibility regarding the distribution of the prize money within the teams.

Shortlisted teams are entitled to the reimbursement of travel and accommodation expenses incurred in relation to the conference provided that they have been purchased on the day of the notification of the shortlisted teams at the earliest and on the day of the conference at the latest. No other costs will be reimbursed. Further details will be sent via e-mail.

The Publications Office reserves the right to terminate the competition before the final conference without any obligation to indemnify the teams.

Participation in other competitions

The teams must inform the Publications Office when submitting their proposal if their application has participated in another competition. Awarding a prize twice for the same application is not allowed.

Intellectual property and copyright

In case teams use pre-existing material (such as open source) for their applications, they must guarantee that they have obtained all the necessary authorisations in order for such material to be used according to the rules described above.

The project description (short description of the idea) submitted for the preselection will remain the property of the teams (authors) and will not be made public (or disclosed), but will be accessible to the jury.

The final proposals submitted for the final selection will remain the property of the authors but will be accessible to the jury and to all teams at the final conference. The EU institutions, agencies and bodies will be allowed to mention, describe and promote on their channels (websites, social media, press releases, etc.) the winning applications with due reference to the author without any further economic compensation.

Publicity

The winning applications will be featured in the ‘Applications’ section of the EU Open Data Portal. Where appropriate, the name and copyright of the authors will be mentioned.

Processing of personal data

All personal data contained in the entry shall be processed in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC. Such data shall be processed by the Publications Office solely in connection with the implementation and follow-up of the entry of the winner, without prejudice to a possible transmission to the bodies in charge of a monitoring or inspection task in accordance with European Union legislation.

Teams may, upon written request, gain access to their personal data and correct any information that is inaccurate or incomplete. They should address any questions regarding the processing of their personal data to the Publications Office via the contact e-mail announced in the rules of the competition. The teams may, at any time, lodge a complaint against the processing of their personal data with the European Data Protection Supervisor. On the EU Datathon website, the Publications Office will publish the name of the winning teams and of their members, their locality, the prize amount and the nature and purpose of their applications. Participants may request that the Publications Office waive such a publication if disclosure risks threatening their security and safety or if it could harm their commercial interest.

Sole liability of the teams

Neither the Publications Office nor the partners may be held responsible for any claim relating to the activities carried out by teams in the framework of the competition.

Neither the Publications Office nor the partners shall be held liable for any damages caused or sustained by any of the teams, including any damages caused to third parties as a consequence of or during the implementation of the activities related to the competition.

Applicable law and competent jurisdiction

The competition is governed by the applicable European Union law complemented, where necessary, by the law of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The General Court or, on appeal, the Court of Justice of the European Union, shall have sole jurisdiction to hear any dispute between the EU and any team concerning the interpretation, entry or validity of the rules of this competition if such a dispute cannot be settled amicably.

Exclusion criteria and administrative sanctions

By submitting the project description teams declare that they are not in one of the situations mentioned in Articles 136-140 and 141 of the financial regulation. Teams who are in any of those situations shall be excluded from participating and from being awarded a prize under the present competition.

Early Detection and Exclusion System

In case the participants are in one of the exclusion situations as stated above, personal data on them may be registered in the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES) in line with the Articles 166, 142 and 143 of the financial regulation. For more information, see the privacy statement for EDES.

Checks and audits

The winning teams accept checks and audits by the European Commission, the European Anti-Fraud Office and the Court of Auditors in relation to the competition and the prize received.