We are excited to announce that #DRAXISteam joined the pan-European online hackathon #EUvsVirus, which took place from April 24 to 26.

#EUvsVirus hackathon is organized by the European Commission under the leadership of the European Innovation Council (EIC), in close collaboration with EU Member States and with the support of other countries as well. The main goal of the hackathon is to connect civil society, innovators, partners and investors across Europe in order to develop innovative solutions for coronavirus-related challenges.  

The EUvsVirus hackathon built upon already conducted national hackathons to enable the rapid execution of brilliant solutions. It should be noted that over 20,900 participants from across the EU and beyond joined the organization to offer their time, talent and business ideas to help support Europe’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Over 2,150 solutions were submitted in the domains of health and life (898), business continuity (381), remote working and education (270), social and political cohesion (452), digital finance (75) and other challenges (83).

The event, which involved over 380 volunteers, 2,400 mentors and over 800 partners, brought together people of 141 different nationalities, as well as different areas of expertise and backgrounds. 

DRAXIS team joined the hackathon and presented Commurban, a mobile application that can improve citizens’ mental and physical health. DRAXIS developed Commurban in the framework of the SIEUGreen project. The idea of the app is to engage citizens in urban and peri-urban farming methods and act as a crowd-sourced repository of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) projects with step-by-step instructions regarding urban agriculture, smart balcony, greenhouses, community gardens farming techniques, etc. The users of Commurban are also able to initiate large scale projects, such as community projects, i.e. a community garden, where other users are able to join and participate. Community projects aim to increase the interaction between users at neighborhood, or even city level and create a sense of community work that can foster cooperation and help citizens to produce the essentials. Throughout a planning process, ideas, information and expectations are shared and decisions are made about different options.

The proposal DRAXIS brought to the table is that Commurban could be further enhanced with additional features such as blockchain technology, product digital ID, a marketplace that will allow users to buy services/food through virtual coins earned in Commurban and re-engineer gamification to increase engagement mechanics. You can find additional information about the project we submitted to the hackathon here.