Fighting youth unemployment, improving sustainability of the food system, bringing EU decision-making closer to citizens, these are some of the ambitions put forward by the teams of application developers selected to compete in the finals of this year's edition of the open data competition, EU Datathon.

Organised under the first-ever EU Open Data Days, EU Datathon 2021 started in March with the call to data enthusiasts worldwide to propose ideas for applications using open data from the portal data.europa.eu. The deadline for the submission of proposals was 21 May.

The preselection jury had 96 app ideas to select from, coming from 33 countries in Europe and beyond. The participants were invited to propose applications addressing one of three challenges aligned with the priorities of the European Commission.

The final stage of EU Datathon 2021 will take place during the EU Open Data Days, an online event that brings together the international open data community from across all sectors. The registration of participants will open in July.

Who are the 9 finalist teams?

Looking at their origin, the finalist teams stretch across Europe, and beyond.

Challenge 1: A European Deal

cleanSpot (Spain)

FROG2G (Montenegro)

The Carbons (India)

Challenge 2: An economy that works for people

CityScale (Ukraine)

ITER IDEA (Italy)

PowerToYEUth (Portugal)

Challenge 3: A Europe fit for the digital age

Democracy Game (Greece)

TrackmyEU (Italy, France)

VislmE-360 (Italy)

Over the next 5 months, the finalist teams will develop their proposals into fully-functioning apps to be presented at the online finals followed by an award ceremony on 25 November 2021.

These apps will help shape our digital future and bring the value of open data to every type of audience: from SMEs, researchers and NGOs through policy makers and governments to everyone in the EU and beyond. Developed with the support of EU Datathon 2021, the apps will be marketable and offer a great value to multiple communities of users.

What’s next?

To find out more, join or follow the event, visit the EU Datathon website. For the latest updates, follow us on Twitter (@EU_opendata) with the hashtags #EUdatathon and #EUopendatadays.

Questions? Comments? Contact us at OP-DATATHON@publications.europa.eu.