On 8 June, the final of the hackathon "InnoAir & Europeana: Sustainability and Social Justice" took place and the winners of the competition were announced. The event took place with the support of Europeana and under the InnoAir project, which is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative.
The final was the culmination of a whole range of activities within the competition. Until 31 May, anyone interested could register their teams to take part, and on 2 and 5 June the mentor meetings took place, during which each team had the opportunity to present their ideas to the competition’s mentors and hear feedback on them, as well as ideas for improving them.
The jury of the hackathon included Doncho Barbalov, Deputy Mayor of Sofia Municipality and Head of the InnoAir Project, Dimitar Dilchev, Director of the Urban Mobility Center, the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski” Prof. Dr. Todor Yalamov, Head of the International Cooperation at NAMRB Yana Docheva, Antonia Shalamanova from Green Sofia, Jolan Wuyts from Europeana and Velko Velkov from the Digitalization, Innovation and Economic Development Department at Sofia Municipality.
Guests at the event were Romain Descroix from the French Cultural Institute in Sofia, Zornitsa Stoykova from the Portuguese Cultural Institute Camões, Nelly Dimova from the Hungarian Cultural Institute, Axel Bayer from the Goethe Institute and Elena Kirova from the Italian Cultural Institute in Sofia.
Five teams with different ideas and prototypes were selected to take part in the final and present their ideas to the jury - Day Off, SparkBot, CY Power, SOFIA PASS and the team of "Pencho P. Slavejkov" school.
The Day Off team, who were the winners of the second InnoAir project hackathon, came to defend their title with their concept and prototype for a gaming app with an environmental focus.
Students from the School of Technology "Electronic Systems" at the Technical University - Sofia with team SparkBot presented their project "SPARKBOT - the little city helper " - a concept and prototype of a robotic device for cleaning the city bike lanes and signaling for problems in the real city environment.
Team SOFIA PASS, on the other hand, presented to the jury and the participants their idea of creating a electric bicycle service and so-called E-Hubs (places where people can use multiple forms of public transport where these bicycles can be provided) and what its business model would be.
Representatives from Team CY Power shared their idea for the "Power" dynamo batteries, which can be mounted on a bicycle and used to charge various devices, charging through the movement of the bicycle.
The students from the “Pencho P. Slaveykov" school presented the project "Eco-port", which includes the creation of an application that will help those using public transport in the capital in their daily commute with a variety of different data and gadgets.
After the presentation of all the projects, the jury of experts in green transformation, urban mobility and technology made their choice:
1st place went to team SparkBot with their project "SPARKBOT - the little city helper", who won 8 000 BGN.
2nd place and a financial prize of 5 000 BGN was awarded to CY Power with their prototype of a dynamo battery for bicycles.
3rd place and 3 000 BGN was awarded to the visionaries from SOFIA PASS with their bringing service using electric bicycles.
There were also special prizes for the team of the "Pencho P. Slavejkov" school from the Urban Mobility Center - free public transport cards for a whole year, as well as courses for learning different foreign languages from a number of cultural institutes in the capital for the Day Off team.
For this hackathon, the organisers introduced a whole new kind of approach to the participating teams by giving everyone access to useful datasets about the capital's public transport, the history of Sofia in terms of urban mobility and the commuting habits of the capital's citizens - data generated by the InnoAir project as well as provided by Europeana. Through this data, participants could tailor their projects to the specific needs of the city, which they could derive from real, up-to-date data on urban mobility, history and cultural identity of Sofia.
"We went through absolutely every database. In the database provided by Europeana, for example, we found an interesting motivational photo that served as a transition between the past and the present. We were also able to see statistics about people's attitudes about whether they would switch to an alternative method of getting around. We were also able to analyze the information about all the bike racks positioned on the territory of Sofia in blue and green zones, which allowed us to create a map on which all such racks can now be seen," said the SOFIA PASS team about the databases available during the race.
"Such competitions are a very good investment for us as students because they give us the opportunity to meet many new people, exchange ideas, get better and challenge ourselves." said the winners of the hackaton for SPARKBOT.
The hackathon "InnoAir & Europeana: Sustainability and Social Justice" was supported by Europeana and is under the auspices of the InnoAir project, which is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative.
Today the final of the competitive part of the hackathon "Beyond Borders: Breaking Stereotypes, Building Bridges" was held, which is implemented under the "Support for Integration of Refugees in Sofia” project and was funded by UNHCR Bulgaria, the UN Refugee Agency, and organized by Sofia Development Association.
The 4 teams that signed up for the competition participated in the final, which took place at the SofíaLab, and presented their projects to a jury. Their challenge was to create an online campaign that opposes the use of discriminatory language and hostile attitudes towards refugees and migrants.
They were evaluated by an expert jury including Boris Cheshirkov from UNHCR Bulgaria, Denitza Lozanova from Sofia Development Association, media expert Polly Zaharieva, journalist Nadia Obretanova and Sara AlKaf, interior architect and member of the Refugee Advisory Board.
The team "Wizards for a Better World" presented their project, which includes making a video with refugee and migrant children and celebrating different dates (International Day for the Protection of Child Victims of Aggression and World Refugee Day) through a number of events and visits.
Team Pupe6, on their part, introduced the jury to their idea for the online platform Connectify, which aims to connect refugee children with organisations, volunteers and companies in Bulgaria, giving them the opportunity to develop and reconnect in a new environment.
The team, under the title "Citizens for a United World", talked about the project "A United World Beyond Borders", which includes a photo exhibition, the organisation of various events, and a social experiment related to building connections between people, regardless of their ethnicity or nationality.
Team Fight Club EG shared their idea for the "Behind the Curtain" campaign.
After evaluation by the jury, the team "Citizens of One World" was chosen as the winner and they received a prize of 3 000 BGN for the implementation of their idea.
They were followed by “Fight Club EG”, “Wizards for a Better World” and “Pupe” who came second, third and fourth respectively in the competition and also received cash prizes to bring their concepts to reality.
Over the next two weeks, all teams will aim to implement their projects, with the presentation of the results, as well as the effects of the campaigns already created in the affected communities, taking place on June 23.
The Hackathon is part of the project " Support for Integration of Refugees in Sofia " and is funded by UNHCR Bulgaria, the UN Refugee Agency, and organized by Sofia Development Association.
In May, over 100 people used the services provided at the Bureau for Information and Services for Third Country Nationals. Legal consultation remains among the top sought services, along with the accompanying service and applications for financial assistance.
On the official website of the bureau, a program is offered every month, in which the various services are described by days and hours. The content of this program is in several languages: Bulgarian, English, French, Ukrainian, Russian, Arabic and Persian.
You can find the program for June in Bulgarian HERE.
You can find the program for June in Ukrainian HERE.
You can find the program for June in English HERE.
You can find the program for June in French HERE.
You can find the program for June in Russian HERE.
You can find the program for June in Arabic HERE.
You can find the program for June in Farsi HERE.
The project Support for the Development of Integration Policy Framework and Service Provision for Refugees in Sofia is supported by UNHCR – Bulgaria.
On May 26, 2023, the Sofia Development Association hosted the first of the planned LEAD Online talks on hate speech online. We had the opportunity to discuss the main objectives of the project with experts on the topic of anti-racism and discrimination, in the context of the need to adopt national plans against racism. During the discussion, the main focus was the need for increased attention against the growing spread of hate speech in the country and in Europe, and for adequate actions and cooperation between all institutions – both in the field of education and in the field of prosecution – against crimes with discriminatory motives.
The approach of the project – which includes interactive trainings and an online game, HateOut! – is important for reaching a large group of young people, giving them the opportunity to combine their personal experiences with arguments and knowledge that draws attention to human rights and the protection of vulnerable groups in society from hostile messages and incitement to violence.
The project is funded by the EU's Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme.
On May 29, 2023, an information meeting was held with representatives of the ICBCCMN and the Child Protection Departments of the Social Assistance Directorates of Sofia Municipality. The meeting is organized within the project "Support for the development of integration policies and services for refugees in Sofia", funded by UNHCR.
The main topic of the event was related to the development of social skills of children and young people, including children and young people with refugee and migrant backgrounds, and the prevention of violence and anti-social behavior. Dr. Maria Shisheva from UNHCR spoke about the profile of refugees arriving in Bulgaria and what are the main problems when working with unaccompanied children. Prof. Ingrid Shikova presented interesting opportunities through civic education at school to "learn to live together" and to be tolerant to others. Snezhina Gabova from SDA focused on the need to prevent discrimination through awareness-raising campaigns and trainings related to online hate speech.
The meeting is part of the project activities aimed at creating institutional and expert capacity to work with refugees and migrants within Sofia Municipality.
The project Support for the Development of Integration Policy Framework and Service Provision for Refugees in Sofia is supported by UNHCR – Bulgaria.
In March 2023, the 16 partner organizations in the project SYNCLUSIVE gathered in Leiden, Netherlands, for their first project team meeting. The SYNCLUSIVE consortium – led by TNO – brings together organizations to jointly develop, test and evaluate an innovative approach for labor market inclusion of vulnerable groups.
The kick-off meeting is the time to establish common goals and the purpose of the project, setting the course for a successful and smooth project collaboration. With about 40 participants, the meeting proved very fruitful for the initiation of the project.
The kick-off was organized in plenary sessions and specific work package sessions. The Living Lab project partners presented the four living labs – in Kokkola, Finland, focusing on low skilled persons, in Portugal, targeting young unemployed persons, in Sofia, Bulgaria, supporting women 55+, and in Amersfoord, the Netherlands, working with long-term unemployed.
The reflecting partners from Estonia, Italy and Ireland, who will be assessing the impact and validating the SYNCLUSIVE living lab approach, discussed their goals and methods.
The WP leaders of WPs that require immediate focus – WP2: Designing Living Labs, WP5: Dissemination and Communication, and WP6: Management, walked the partners through the timeline, objectives, activities and modes of collaborative work.
Getting to know each other and setting the pathway to the project implementation, all parties are ready to go!
SDA is a project partner responsible for the living Lab in Sofia, as well as leader of WP Dissemination.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme under grant agreement No 101056661.