Day 3: EU DATATHON - 25 November 2021
Opening speech
Hilde Hardeman
Director-General of the Publications Office
Hilde Hardeman, Head of the European Commission's Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, joined the Commission in 1994. She was nominated Director-General of the European Union’s Publication Office in October 2021. Previously, she served as Deputy Head of Cabinet to the Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness; headed the Commission President’s briefing team; and was in charge of the Units for Relations with Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. Hilde holds a PhD in Slavic Philology and History of the University of Leuven after studies at Leuven, Stanford University, and Paris. She was visiting professor at the College of Europe.
On 5 October 2021, Hilde was appointed Director-General of the European Union’s inter-institutional Publications Office. She will take up her new function on the 1st of December.
Shaping our future with open data
Johannes Hahn
European Commissionner for Budget and Administration
Johannes Hahn was the Member of the European Commission in charge of Regional Policy from 2010 to 2014. From 2014 to 2019, he was the Member of the European Commission in charge of Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. Since December 2019, he has been the Member of the European Commission in charge of Budget and Administration.
A European Green Deal
The European Green Deal is the plan to make the EU's economy sustainable and to transform the Union into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy. Teams competing in this challenge were invited to demonstrate how open data can support this plan and develop apps or services that could be used to create a greener Europe, to boost efficient use of resources or to restore biodiversity and reduce pollution.
Opening speech: Data4Sustainability
Suzanne Dael
Expert, European Environment Agency
Suzanne Dael is an expert in climate-change mitigation and energy at the European Environment Agency. In her talk, she will provide a sneak preview of the agency’s current work to communicate interactively on climate and energy issues by leveraging the open data that the agency collects and distributes.
App pitch: cleanSpot
Marcos Martínez
Spain
The cleanSpot application provides information and locations of recycling spots (recycling centres, mobile recycling vehicles, specialised containers, etc.) in municipalities all around Spain. Users can also calculate how much CO2 emissions they save, send notices about recycling spot incidents, receive notifications when mobile recycling vehicles are around, and receive tips about recycling and energy savings.
App pitch: FROG2G
Gordana Vujovic, Biljana Vujovic, Hajdana Milovic
Montenegro
By surveying capitals of EU member states, FROG2G will investigate if and why people care about forestation. Together with available statistical data, the effect of forests on our daily life will be shown, for instance in terms of air quality. An interactive visualisation tool will show how many forest areas cities have, where they are, and which type of trees are planted there. Ultimately, this aims to encourage the process of afforestation in the EU.
App pitch: The Carbons
Aishwarya Shastry, Kuhu Gupta, Nishtha Bhan
India
The Carbons' application aims to educate people about their carbon footprint and help them make conscious food choices. This, in turn, helps to make the food system more sustainable. The team aims to achieve this via interactive data visualisations.
An economy that works for people
The EU’s unique social market economy allows economies to grow and to reduce poverty and inequality. With Europe on a stable footing, the economy can fully respond to the needs of people in the EU. Teams competing in this challenge were invited to demonstrate how open data can support this effort and develop apps or services for the public, for businesses, or for public administrations to create a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union, to boost investment and jobs creation or to address youth unemployment.
Opening speech: Data – the essence of today’s digital society
Aleš Veršič
Head of the Slovenian Open Data Portal, Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration
Aleš Veršič works for the Information Society Directorate at the Ministry of Public Administration. His main activities focus on data, particularly open data. He is a member of the OPSI (Open Data Portal of Slovenia) team. He holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Ljubljana.
App pitch: Data – CityScale
Alexander Go
Ukraine
CityScale collects data on cities, and the application gauges the quality and cost of living. If you are planning a move, this real estate search service visualises, compares, and finds the best place for you to live.
App pitch: ITER IDEA
Guido Mazza, Matteo Carbone, Sara Baroni
Italy
ITER IDEA aim to fight youth unemployment and connect young people (specifically women aged 15 – 32) to opportunities abroads. On the portal, users can indicate their field of study, the languages they speak, and their budget; this information is then matched to specific European areas and regions.
App pitch: PowerToYEUth
Nuno Braganca
Portugal
PowerToYEUth aims to tackle youth employment by showing the regions with the high levels of youth unemployment and highlighting the benefits of hiring young people for SMEs. The application will also help to find and make use of EU funds and get in touch with start-up incubators in Europe.
A Europe fit for the digital age
The EU aims at a digital transformation that works for people and businesses. Demonstrate how open data can support this transformation. Develop apps (or services) that improve data skills, increase connectivity, or make data more understandable for everyone. Teams competing in this challenge were invited to draw upon the European Data Strategy and think how to build sustainable European data spaces in the domains of public procurement, law, and open data.
Opening speech: The sound of data
Reet Sommer
Head of Data Management, Document Production Unit, European Parliament
Reet Sommer works at the European Parliament and heads DG ITEC’s Data Management and Document Production Unit. She is currently the one in charge of the Parliament's open data project and portal.
App pitch: Democracy Game
Dimitra Giannaki, Konstantinos Kalafatakis, Dimitrios Lampiris, Olga Dourou
Greece
With the purpose of engaging citizens in politics, Democracy Game will host virtual debates, competition, and polls like a social networking app. Users will be able to create virtual clubs, enter a virtual “townhall”, discover EU datasets, take the floor and express their arguments, record their performance, and connect with peers.
App pitch: TrackmyEU
Chiara Girardelli, Raphaël Kergueno
Italy, France
TrackmyEU aims to bring EU decision-making closer to citizens. The app will allow you to find information on EU policies, and sort, rank, and filter this information based on your interests and preferences.
App pitch: VislmE-360
Boris Bikbov
Italy
VisImE-360 offers a tool that helps allocate resources for visual impairment corrections or medical aid. A wide set of indicators will help stakeholders to map vision impairment, draw comparisons between various countries, plan public health actions, and improve access to treatment.
Awarding of prizes and public choice award
Per Nymand-Andersen
Adviser to Senior Management, European Central Bank
Per Nymand-Andersen is an adviser to senior management at the European Central Bank. Over the past 25 years, Per has developed his expertise in banking and financial markets, fintech, data science, visual communications, securities settlement systems, statistics and management.
June Lowery
Head of Unit Accessibility, Multilingualism and Safer Internet, DG CNECT, European Commission
June Lowery is Head of Unit and Deputy to the Director at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG CNECT). She has worked for the EU institutions in Luxembourg for the past 25 years in a wide variety of fields including publications, finance, logistics, and digital inclusion. Her current responsibilities include web accessibility, language technology and online safety for children. She is also the CNECT equality coordinator. She is passionate about her job, and about making the digital world safer for children, and more accessible, inclusive and multilingual for all.