NUI Galway to Host Galway Climathon 2017 Hub in Global Climate Hackathon

Galway city’s innovators will join 111 cities across 44 countries on six continents in a day of innovation to generate pioneering ideas that could lead Galway towards the zero-carbon economy of the future. Galway Climathon 2017 will harness the energy and dynamism of all interested groups and individuals to develop and scale innovations towards a zero-carbon future for Galway city, taking place on Friday 27 October at the Cube in NUI Galway’s Bailey Allen Hall.

This is the second year that Galway has participated in the Global Climathon hackathon, which this year is being hosted by NUI Galway’s Ryan Institute in conjunction with the award-winning Masters degree in Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (MScCCAFS) program at the University. The global 24-hour climate change hackathon, powered by Climate-KIC will take place simultaneously in major cities around the world. Climate-KIC is the EU’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on climate change, and runs this annual event to empower individuals and organisations to work together in order to develop new solutions to the climate crisis at the city scale.

Professor Charles Spillane, Director of the Ryan Institute at NUI Galway, said: “Cities consume over two-thirds of the world’s energy and account for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions. With 90% of the world’s urban areas situated on coastlines, cities are at high risk from some of the devastating impacts of climate change, such as rising sea levels and powerful coastal storms. Coastal cities such as Galway are on the frontlines of global climate change and are well-positioned to play a leadership role with sister cities worldwide in driving global action to address climate change. Our Climathon event presents a unique opportunity for multiple innovators, groups and individuals to work together to develop and scale innovations towards a zero-carbon footprint horizon-point for Galway city districts, sectors and inhabitants.”

At Galway Climathon 2017, each team will develop their own innovation idea throughout the one-day event, facilitated by the NUI Galway TechInnovate team, culminating in a pitch competition at the end of the day before a high-profile judging panel. The top three teams will receive over €1000 in TechInnovate funding support to progress their innovations on to accelerator and entrepreneurship programs that will in turn translate them into start-up companies, social enterprises or funded projects/programmes.

Dr Peter McKeown and Dr David Styles from NUI Galway’s MScCCAFS program added: “Galway can lead in this global challenge, having been in the firing line of a number of powerful storms over the past few years, such as Storm Desmond in 2015 and Storm Ophelia last week. It is therefore apt that Galway harnesses the creativity and international innovation leadership for which it is renowned to lead global efforts in climate mitigation.”

Climathon 2017 will provide a unique opportunity for innovators, change agents and stakeholders in Galway to create new technologies or ways to implement existing technologies that can effectively decarbonise the city, and other cities globally.

Prospective innovators are encouraged to sign up for Climathon 2017 at: https://climathon.climate-kic.org/galway and Follow on Twitter @GalwayClimathon

View Climathon participating cities globally here: https://climathon.climate-kic.org/#map