Climathon, a global 24-hour hackathon for finding city-specific climate change solutions, will expand this year to six Australian cities, Climate KIC Australia is proud to announce.
The hackathon will take place in Melbourne, Sydney, Bassendean (in Perth), Adelaide and Canberra on October 27. Over 100 cities around the world will also be participating in the 24-hour event simultaneously – making it the biggest of its kind in history.
Climathon brings together innovators and entrepreneurs with local government officials to solve climate problems nominated by each host city.
Each event invites innovators, entrepreneurs, students and professionals to tackle a climate issue tailored to their city within the 24 hour timeframe. Participants around the world can gain exposure and access to a global climate innovation community.
Cities across Australia have set challenges such as:
- resilience to extreme heat and heatwaves (Melbourne)
- achieving carbon neutrality (Adelaide)
- encouraging uptake of electric vehicles (Canberra)
Climathon is an initiative of Climate-KIC Australia partner, Climate-KIC Europe, an EU public-private innovation partnership. The Australian events are supported by newly-founded Climate-KIC Australia, and coordinated and hosted by partner institutions; the University of Melbourne, Curtin University, EnergyLab, Queensland University of Technology and the University of Adelaide.
Throughout the event, cities will get the chance to link up via live stream across the states to share ideas, support, and motivation while problem solving in real time.
“Since participating in Climathon 2016 we have gone from strength to strength,” says Carola Jonas CEO and Co-founder of Everty. “Our peer to peer electric vehicle charging network ‘Everty’ began as a Climathon idea and has since developed into a fully fledged business in the EnergyLab Accelerator.”
“The global Climathon is an ideal opportunity for innovation groups across Australia to showcase their ideas and entrepreneurial skills,” says Jemma Green, Chair of Climate-KIC Australia.
To register to participate, or for more information about an event in your city, visit www.climathon.climate-kic.org.