European Commission’s CASSINI Hackathon to take place in Cluj this November

The CASSINI Hackathon, a project created at the initiative of the European Commission to support entrepreneurs, start-ups, and SMEs in the space industry, will focus this year on innovative solutions for humanitarian aid in three areas: sustainable infrastructure development, strengthening food security and access to safe drinking water, and understanding and forecasting forced migration. The event will take place over the weekend of November 3-5 in Cluj-Napoca.

CASSINI Hackathons are a major opportunity to develop ideas for a digital application building on space data, including satellite images and positioning services. This year’s hackathon is for those interested in space technologies, international development, and humanitarian activities. 

The CASSINI Hackathon is organized by the Romanian Tech Startups Association, a non-profit organization that aims to promote, support, and represent the interests of technology start-ups in Romania. Registrations for the 6th edition can be made until October 26 - here. 

“This edition of the CASSINI hackathon stands out for the opportunity to harness the potential of EU space data and intelligence in addressing global challenges. The EU space program and its flagship projects Copernicus, Galileo, and EGNOS provide a wealth of data that can be used for international development and humanitarian aid,” said Stefan Schneider, head of space entrepreneurship at EUSPA. 

During the event, participants will get access to EU space data and signals to create solutions focused on three topics, namely sustainable infrastructure development, food security of access to drinking water, and understanding and forecasting forced migration. 

“We believe that the essence of technological developments is to help, to make our lives easier, whether we are talking about everyday life in the office, at home, and sometimes even where there are huge problems - in areas of conflict, natural disasters or medical problems. Technology must help doctors, NGO workers, security specialists, biologists, and teachers. Technology needs to be more and more accessible and increasingly oriented towards solving the world’s big problems,” said Tudor Pasc, ROTSA Incubation Director. 

CASSINI is a European Commission initiative to support entrepreneurs, start-ups, and SMEs in the space industry from 2021-2027. The initiative is open to all areas of the EU Space Programme, and covers both upstream (i.e. nanosats, launchers, etc.) and downstream (i.e. products/services enabled by space data, etc.).

CASSINI includes a EUR 1 billion EU seeds and growth fund, hackathons and mentoring, prizes, a business accelerator, partnering, and matchmaking. 

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(Photo source: the organizers)