Call for Applications: EaP Civic Tech Hackathon

For three days the technical and subject-matter experts will work with mentors on digital solutions addressing the needs of communities, helping citizens to better hold their governments to account and/or leading to the improvement of public services in their home countries.

The Hackathon winner(s) will receive financial and expert support from the European Union to fully develop and launch their civic tech solutions.

Hackathon Objective

• The 2024 EaP Civic Tech Hackathon seeks to unleash the potential of digital technologies to contribute to improved transparency and accountability in the EaP countries, as well as to address the concrete needs of communities, and/or lead to the improvement of public services.
• The Hackathon will bring together around 50 civil society activists, IT developers and graphic designers from the EaP countries to work on new digital solutions addressing the needs of communities, helping citizens to better hold their governments to account and/or leading to the improvement of public services in their home countries. The Hackathon winner(s) will receive financial and expert support from the European Union to develop and launch their civic tech solutions.
• Participation in the EaP Hackathons is open to all citizens of the EaP countries with a strong civic engagement and real experience of civic work, regardless of their experience in working for a civil society organisation (CSO). The EaP Civil Society Facility pursues to engage young activists outside of traditional CSOs in the development of their home countries.
• All applications to the Hackathon programme which match the eligibility requirements and which are in line with the objective described will be considered by the Selection Committee.

Hackathon Implementation

• The 2024 EaP Civic Tech Hackathon has the following stages:
  • Online EaP Civic Tech Ideathon
    • The 2024 EaP Civic Tech Hackathon starts with the Civic Tech Ideathon, an intensive two-week online incubation session for civil society activists – authors of ideas for digital solutions (applicants), and Ideathon mentors. The Ideathon will be held online from the 1st to the 16th of December 2023, and will take up to 40 hours of a participant’s time.
    • The Online EaP Civic Tech Ideathon consists of the following activities in which the civil society activists (authors) are required to participate:
      • Introductory online meeting with the organisers, mentors and shortlisted applicants on ZOOM.
      • At least two online capacity building events – webinars delivered by the Ideathon mentors. These webinars aim to build participants’ skills and capacities to implement civic tech projects, and cover such topics as product targeting, success stories and failure cases, good practices, pitching and presentation techniques, etc.
  • Stage 2: EaP Civic Tech Hackathon
    • The 2024 EaP Civic Tech Hackathon will be held from the 26th to the 28th of January 2024, in Chisinau, Moldova. During this time, up to 15 civil society activists selected at the Ideathon and their team members (developers and designers from the EaP countries) will be working on prototypes of their civic tech solutions. The hackathon teams will get support, supervision and advice from the Hackathon mentors through masterclasses and individual consultations.
    • The Hackathon participants will work in teams consisting of three persons:
      • the author of the respective digital solution idea (a civil society representative and a subject matter expert) who will act as the team lead of his/her team and be fully responsible for the development process and the outcome, and
      • two technical experts – one developer and one graphic designer, or two developers (depending on the technical aspects of the proposed solution).
    • The Hackathon participants and the mentors will use the following criteria to evaluate the presented digital solutions by the:
      • social value of the proposed civic tech solution;
      • feasibility of the proposed solution;
      • relevance of the proposed solution to the needs of the target group;
      • impact on the situation and the target group;
      • sustainability of the proposed solution.
  • Stage 3: EaP Civic Tech Award
    • In February 2024, up to five nominees for the 2024 EaP Civic Tech Award (the Hackathon finalists) will be invited to apply for the support within a Restricted Call for Applications and submit their applications with updated information on the proposed solutions following work with mentors at the Hackathon, and detailed budgets.

Funding Information

• The expected average amount of support for a winner is EUR 10,000; on an exceptional basis, up to EUR 12,000 may be awarded.

Why Participate?

• Smart Team Members & Mentors’ Support
  • Find new members for your team to work on your idea of a civic tech solution, or join a team working on a civic tech project to solve a problem you care about. The mentors from civic tech, IT and consulting companies have a lot of experience and can help you improve your project!
• New Knowledge & Useful Network
  • With master classes from interdisciplinary experts, you will have the chance to learn something new and, hopefully, enjoy yourself in the process. What else? Participants from six countries. Free food and snacks. Travel and accommodation for people outside of Chisinau are on them!
• Get the Award
  • Based on the voting results, up to five top-scpring ideas of civic tech solutions will be nominated for the EaP Civic Tech Award and have the opportunity to get funding for the development and launch. The previous Hackathon winners have already launched their solutions. In 2024 it could be you!

Target Audience

• The proposed civic tech solutions must target and be used by the citizens of one or more EaP country.

Eligibility Criteria

• Participation in the 2024 EaP Civic Tech Hackathon is open to all citizens and CSOs from the Eastern Partnership countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Applications from grassroots activists and young professionals from across the region are encouraged.
• Eligibility of applicants from civil society (authors of civic tech solutions)
  • In order to be eligible for the 2024 EaP Civic Tech Hackathon the applicant must:
    • be a natural person;
    • be a national of one of the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine);
    • be above 18 years old;
    • have a proven track record of civic engagement, for example, of working (including by volunteering) in a CSO, groups of civil activists or taking an active role in his/her community in at least one EaP country;
    • have a good command of English;
    • have not received the EaP Civic Tech Award 3 in the past.
• Eligibility of applicants – developers and graphic designers
  • In order to be eligible for the 2024 EaP Civic Tech Hackathon the applicant must:
    • be a natural person;
    • be a national of one of the Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine);
    • be above 18 years old;
    • have a proven track record of working experience as an UX/UI or graphic designer, and/or a software developer (web, mobile, frontend, backend, full stack, etc.).
    • have a good command of English.
• Eligibility of the ideas of civic tech solutions
  • The 2024 EaP Civic Tech Hackathon is focused on developing new digital solutions that address societal challenges in the EaP countries.
  • Proposed solutions are expected to fall within one or several of the following technical categories:
    • e-Participation: helping citizens engage in policy- and decision-making, making the processes easier to understand and/or access, and enabling constant feedback and two-way communication;
    • e-Transparency: making public sector decisions and actions more open to scrutiny and enabling public control over civil servants, public procurements and budget spending;
    • Citizens mobilization: utilizing online tools to engage and motivate citizens, stakeholders and allies for a specific development need or cause;
    • Citizens-to-citizens services: supporting CSOs in providing services to citizens;
    • CSO transparency & accountability: supporting CSOs in improving the accountability mechanisms of their organisations and in better linking activities to citizens’ needs;
    • e-Government and e-Services: improving access to the information on public sector organisations, connecting citizens and improving quality of public services.

For more information, visit Eastern Partnership Civil Society Facility.