International online hackathon organized by the three Baltic States dedicated to the search for digital and innovative solutions that can promote the development of green ports, reduce pollution and the impact of shipping, preserve natural biodiversity, strengthen food value chains, promote the use of renewable energy sources, make more efficient use of logistics and create a socially friendly environment for all.
12,000 euros in the prize fund. Opportunity to win additional prizes from hackathon partners.
Information about the hackaton will reach at least 1 million people.
Opportunity to sell your idea to a business enterprise.
The best teams will present their solutions during the international conference "Digital Sea 2021".
The Baltic Sea is an important part of our food systems. However, the low level of exploration of the Baltic Sea poses a number of challenges, such as poor fish nutrition, migration, disease detection, digital traceability of the seafood or the inability to use fish food waste efficiently. Excessive fishing, the use of bottom trawls and fisheries have caused great damage to the ecosystem of the Baltic Sea.
In addition, the climate of the sea has untapped potential – for example, biomass produced from macroalgae can be used as food and consumables, however, growing and harvesting macroalgae is still in its infancy in the Baltic Sea.
In this hackathon, we will look for sustainable fishing, innovative food and advanced technological solutions that enable untapped marine potential, increase biodiversity and address existing ecosystem challenges.
The Baltic Sea is the fourth most polluted sea in the world, which is severely affected by chemicals and eutrophication. It is the most densely trafficked sea in the world with as many as 2000 ships sailing at the sea at the same time. What is more, residents of port cities suffer from pollution that is dangerous to their health. Finally, due to the difficult climatic conditions, it is little studied.
Digital solutions enabling the development of green ports, the collection of data in the Baltic Sea, the identification of sources of risk, the reduction of the impact of pollution and shipping and innovative educational approaches could be a rapid step towards a more sustainable Baltic Sea ecosystem. These are the solutions that we are looking for!
Shipping is a particularly important part of the world's logistics infrastructure, which is closely linked to other means of transport (especially railways). Advanced logistics solutions allow goods to travel faster, keep food fresh and save fuel resources. Not everyone knows this, but the Baltic Sea is the most densely trafficked sea in the world. However, each untapped logistics opportunity has an impact on environmental, health and financial sustainability.
We expect smart, creative and innovative solutions that will enable more efficient use of logistics opportunities, from autonomous, environmentally friendly shipping solutions to more efficient delivery systems and their better integration into the entire transport infrastructure.
Blue energy is a huge untapped energy potential of the seas that will receive a lot of investment in the near future, generate significant economic returns for society and help protect the environment. The European Commission has set a target to scale up the amount of renewable energy from the sea 5 times by 2030 and even 25 times by 2050. In addition, a variety of other advanced inter-marine power bridges connecting different countries and continents exist.
We invite you to offer innovative solutions that will help unleash and exploit the potential of marine energy!
4 000 Eur
4 000 Eur
4 000 Eur
Mentor & Jury Member
Head of Fish Resource Research Department at BIOR
Mentor
Head of the Marine section at BIOR
Mentor
Professor at Marine Biology of University of Tartu & Head of the Department of Marine Biology of Estonian Marine Institute
Mentor
Entrepreneur & Business angel
Jury member
Project manager at Lithuanian Innovation Center
The use of algae in the Baltic Sea: are there any new opportunities in the use of algae biomass, focusing on both collection and growing?
The challenge was offered by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania.
Pharmaceuticals are another threat to biodiversity (birds, mammals, and fish). Everything we don’t handle properly ends up in the sea. The collection of obsolete medicines is still struggling to reach society; although a wide variety of pharmaceutical substances are already found in water bodies. An effective mechanism is needed. Just what?
The challenge was offered by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania.
Fishing not only provides food but also poses many challenges to biodiversity. The extent of by-catches of seabirds and mammals in fishing gear is still not entirely clear. Nevertheless, one thing is clear: both, birds and seals, are killed in fishing gear. If there is no clear, scientifically-based information, we cannot assess the status of the populations, and without an assessment, we do not know whether measures to achieve good status are needed.
Challenges faced:
Challenge proposed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia
The challenge owners would like to get solutions which could:
Challenge proposed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia
How to ensure that species alien and invasive to Latvian nature are not farmed? It is important to develop closed aquaculture, which would reduce both environmental pollution and the amount of compensation payable for damage caused by migrating or protected non-hunting animals.
Challenge proposed by the Klaipeda port
The challenge owners would like to get a solution that would create a system for monitoring the spawning migration of fish. This system should provide information on how and when fish migrate and what their quantitative distribution over time is.
As fish migrate to the Curonian Lagoon and various rivers through the Klaipeda port, the creation of such monitoring system would help the port to plan their work and assess the impact of the port's economic activities on fish migration processes.
Challenge proposed by BIOR
Growing edible bivalve mollusks in the Baltic Sea, in the most polluted areas (zones with major pollution), with an emphasis on ecology and biogenic diversity. How to go from experimental to full-cycle industry, reaching bigger product value?
The challenge was offered by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Estonia.
The monitoring data about the litter moving to the sea is inadequate. Today, the monitoring of litter is done by hand. Equipment is needed to detect and monitor plastic waste entering the sea together with the flow from rivers.
How to detect and measure different-sized litters in rivers? How and when do they move? An underwater solution from one shore to another detecting trash in flowing water is needed to further plan methods to remove litter from rivers.
The challenge was offered by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania.
The main problem in the Baltic Sea is eutrophication (algae blooms, lack of oxygen, reduced water transparency), which is mainly caused by pollution from agricultural activities and poorly treated wastewater.
Intensive agriculture and the lack of a constructive dialogue between the environment and agriculture representatives mean that more and more pollution is entering the Baltic Sea. To address eutrophication, the parties to the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) have agreed on nitrogen and phosphorus reduction targets for each country. Lithuania's goal is to reduce the input of nitrogen by 8,970 t (19%) and phosphorous by 1,470 t (56%) into the Baltic Sea.
Latest studies show that almost 97% of the Baltic Sea is affected by eutrophication, the area of anaerobic areas is increasing, now occupying about 17% of the seabed (there were none 150 years ago), so effective coordinated action is needed to reduce nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) pollution from agriculture and the resilience of the Baltic Sea to adverse nutrient effects increased. Otherwise, the Baltic Sea will turn into just a swampy pond.
The challenge was offered by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Estonia.
Planned or not - a lot of litter is left behind by people in public beaches. It requires a lot of manual work now to rake and gather the trash. Similarly to robot lawn mowers or vacuum cleaners, there could be a solution for finding smoke stubs, smaller papers, cans etc. in the sand.
Similarly, drones could collect harmful algae from water that is 30-50 cm deep. Also, it should be possible to gather macroalgae that are flushed to the beach and take them to a spot where a car could pick them up. Robots could do all this work during the nighttime.
The challenge was offered by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Estonia.
The largest amount of litter gets to rivers in spring time when the water level is high. A lot of litter gets to the river from the land and then from rivers to the sea. Now beams over rivers are used and with certain regularity the trash in the beam net is pulled out. However, this requires manual labor. How could this process be more automated? There is a need for a solution that would work for a certain period of time without the intervention of people.
The challenge was offered by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Estonia.
In Estonia most of the litter enters the sea through the drainage systems, rainwater pipes and rivers. An effective solution is needed to catch the litter from rainwater pipes to keep rivers and sea cleaner. Different solutions are being tested around the world, but we are still looking for the best one.
The challenge was offered by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania.
At least 50,000 tons of various munitions have been drowned in the Baltic Sea. In Lithuanian marine area lie chemical-filled artillery shells, aviation bombs, various containers, and in the Skagerrak – countless ships with the same cargo.
The largest known such tombs in the Baltic Sea are near the island of Bornholm and in the Gotland Basin at a depth of about 75-120 m. During the monitoring, it became clear that traces of chemical weapons are found in the environment (biota, sediments and water) of the dumped munition area in the Lithuanian marine waters.
Politicians and experts still disagree on which is better – to leave everything lying at sea or to isolate and remove it. Both solutions have their threats. Containers and artillery wear out, sooner or later all their contents will end up in the sea if we do nothing. On the other hand, we simply cannot raise it either, because it is not clear what is in which containers and whether the containers will withstand such actions. What to do?
Challenge proposed by the Klaipeda port
The challenge owners would like to get a solution that would allow to record the spread of salt water to the Curonian Lagoon.
Challenge proposed by the Klaipeda port
The challenge owners would like to get a solution that would allow continuous monitoring of water areas used by shipbuilding and repair companies (other port users could be also included), which would allow the identification of the source of pollution of Tributil tin or another element in the real-time.
Challenge proposed by the Freeport of Riga Authority
The challenge owners would like to get a solution that would ensure advanced and efficient water area bottom treatment and pollution collection.
Challenge proposed by the Freeport of Riga Authority
Operational response solutions for the detection of chemical and oil pollution in flowing water reservoirs in the port water area.
Challenge proposed by Maritime Academy of Latvia
Baltic Sea live organism protection against sound during installation of the monopiles (foundations of the generators).
There are some technical solutions using special sound filters and compressed air, but that are reducing the level just till the dangerous level. What other ways can be used to reduce the noise of the installation of the monopiles?
Challenge proposed by Maritime Academy of Latvia
It is well known that water quality will worsen very fast under any closed surface. The issue here is with bacteria and other microorganisms. Also, there is no direct sunlight. The authors of the challenge expect solutions to this problem.
Remigijus Lapinskas - entrepreneur, investor. The longtime developer of the Lithuanian biomass sector, who has encouraged the replacement of fossil fuels imported into the Lithuanian heat industry with local renewable energy resources. He is currently a Board member of the World Biomass Energy Association and the President of the Green Policy Institute. He is active in public activities, established the National Inviolable Forest Support Fund.
Dr. Nerijus Nika is the head of Fisheries and Aquaculture laboratory of Marine Research Institute (Klaipeda University). His expertise covers fish biology, fishery management and conservation, while recent involvement is mostly related to aquaculture and blue bioeconomy sector development.
Dr. Paulius Rapalis is the Head of Waterborne Transport and Air Pollution Laboratory of the Marine Research Institute (Klaipeda University). Since 2011, has been working in research covering the assessment of air pollutant emissions and implementation of abatement technologies in marine and other transport as well as ports.
Kristina Šermukšnytė-Alešiūnienė has more than 12 years of experience as an international digitalization expert in national and international working groups. In 2020, the European Commission highlighted the AgriFood Lithuania DIH managed by her as one of two good practice examples of European sectorial DIHs in the JRC science policy report. Also, from March 2021 AgriFood Lithuania DIH is the EIT FOOD Hub in Lithuania.
Sven Parkel is the General Manager of the Tartu Biotechnology Park. He is experienced in healthtech, biotech and foodtech sectors and provides knowledge in road-map and business plan creation, financial planning, product development, market fit analysis and in intellectual property topics (patenting).
Aistė Kubiliūtė, Head of the Marine Environmental Assessment Division of the Environmental Protection Agency, is an experienced expert in the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon environmental monitoring and assessment. She closely collaborates with colleagues and best scientific experts in the field of the sea, participates in the working groups of HELCOM and EC and constantly looks for the solutions to achieve good environmental status of the Sea. She believes that eutrophication and the effect of water „blooming“, chemical pollution and impact on biodiversity pose new challenges to achieving good environmental status of the Baltic Sea.
Augustas Alešiūnas is the founder and the CEO of ART21. He is a serial entrepreneur and a business angel in FoodTech and AgTech businesses. Also, he was the first one in Lithuania who managed to attract VC financing for the AgriFood Tech sector. Starting from 2008, investments in companies managed by him have grown to more than 10 million EUR. Augustas Alešiūnas’ company provides precise farming and grain management AgroSmart solutions for more than 85% of Baltic market. He actively invests into AgriFood Tech solutions based on Raman spectrometry, AI and blockchain technologies. Last year, ART21 represented Lithuania in the World Summit Awards in the category of Environment and Green Energy. Also, the company was included in the list of Lithuanian TOP startups by European technology news platform Sifted supported by the Financial Times.
Minister of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania
Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia
Minister of Environment of the Republic of Estonia
PhD. Sirli Rosenvald is an experienced expert in the fields of food technologies along with sensory and consumer research. Currently, at TFTAK she and her team work on the development of novel food products including plant-based meat and dairy substitutes and different functional foods. She has a wide collaboration network including academic and industrial partners with whom they jointly work to provide the food products that please the senses while supporting the health and being environmentally sustainable.
She is an active member of the European Sensory Network (ESN) in knowledge exchange and participating in joint research projects.
Talis Juhna is a Water Technology professor and Vice-Rector for Research at Riga Technical university (Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte). In 2014, he received an ITERA award for contribution to environmental science and in 2016 - the World Culture Council Special Recognitions.
Since 2017 Dr. Talis Juhna is the Vice Chairman of the Latvian Council of Science. His research about the pathogenic microorganisms that cannot be detected with cultivation methods but are still present alive in the drinking water supply networks is amongst the most read in the American Society for Microbiology journals.
Priit Lepasepp is a renewable energy investor, CEO and founder of Sunly. Also, he is a founder of the Estonian Energy Cooperative and Tuleva Pension Fund.
Priit has previously worked as a legal advisor at Nelja Energia, the largest renewable energy company in the Baltics at that time.
Brigita Dalecka, Ph.D., was born in 1990. In 2016, Brigita graduated from the University of Latvia with a master's degree in natural science. During her studies, Brigita has also gained international experience by practicing and improving her laboratory skills at the KWR Water Institute in the Netherlands. Since 2014, Brigita studied at RTU and KTH Royal Institute of Technologies.
In a Ph.D. project, Brigita investigated the filamentous fungi potential for wastewater treatment from pharmaceutical substances. Along with the activities in the academic field, Brigita has been a part of the RTU Design Factory team, coordinating the activity of the Vertically Integrated Project and EIT RawMaterials Baltic Hub. Brigita has also been actively involved in activities related to public education and information, increasing the awareness of science's impact on society.
Deniss Bickovs has gained experience in a lot of projects related to logistics, transport and maritime environment. For example, Air monitoring, Modern solution for oil spill clean-up, Port community, SafeSeaNet, ANNA, SKLOIS, Port Integration, e-freight, “e-Maritime Strategic Framework and Simulation-based Validation” etc.
Also, he has coordinated the work with government institutions for the implementation of electronic systems in real life.
Deniss Bickovs has contributed to organizing and leading various meetings, working groups, and lectures for the implementation of several projects and EU directives’ requirements into Latvian legislation.
Since the beginning of 2020 he is an Assistant Lecturer at the Latvian Maritime Academy.
Dr. Didzis Ustups is Head of Fish Resource Research Department in Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment (BIOR). As a senior researcher in the BIOR institute and member of the Advisory Committee in The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) his research interests are understanding the functioning of the Baltic Sea and its coastal rivers ecosystem. Didzis Ustups was involved in the development of Maritime spatial planning on the national and pan-Baltic levels as a fishery expert.
Karl Vene is the founder and head of engineering in Flydog Marine. He has 11 years of experience in marine and submarine environmental monitoring equipment engineering. According to him, as engineer You are expected to design things. As it appears, most things in the world become useless too soon. He believes that their mission as engineers in Flydog Marine has been to build the most useful things they can think of.
Knowing how difficult it is for a young business to enter marine sector, they are happy to help others do good for the fish and the rest of us.
Currently Aigars Lavrinovics is a PhD student in the Water Research and Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory at Riga Technical University and a researcher at the Institute for Environmental Solutions. His current research is related to microalgae-based wastewater treatment and resource recovery. His latest research projects are also related to water pollution control, aquatic ecosystem functioning and greenhouse gas emission control from agricultural soils.
Ivars Putnis is the head of the Marine section at the Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment "BIOR". He is also a lecturer at the University of Latvia. His expertise covers fisheries data collection and marine research to provide information necessary for fish stock assessment and appropriate scientific advice for fisheries management at the national and international level. He has a background in ecological modelling and supports the ecosystem-based management approach.
Rytis Juozapavičius helps leaders as a public speaking coach from 1998. He has experience as a radio and TV talk shows host, a NGO's leader, a business consultant and a Mindfulness trainer.
Georg Martin is a professor at Marine Biology of University of Tartu and the head of the Department of Marine Biology of Estonian Marine Institute (since 1998). For many years he has been involved in monitoring and assessing the status of benthic communities and habitats, dealing with various methodological, scientific and administrative issues. He has participated in the creation and modernization of the Estonian network of marine protected areas and has been a member of several international projects and working groups on this topic. Recently he is coordinating several projects on development of macroalgae aquaculture.
Viesturs Sosārs is a serial entrepreneur. He has co-founded companies, invested as a business angel as well as managed an early-stage investment fund. Viesturs mentors at various startup bootcamps, hackathons and accelerator programs in Europe, advises corporate customers on innovation, and teaches entrepreneurship practice at several universities in Latvia.
Gytis Junevičius has extensive experience in cluster facilitation and development. Also, he is a strong consultant on innovation funding.
Giedrius Bagušinskas is the President at the Lithuanian Cluster Network, representative of Lithuanian Clusters in European Cluster Alliance, founder, board member and CEO at the Lithuanian Food Exporters Association (LitMEA). Also, Giedrius is a coordinator at SMART Food Cluster.
Aldis Greitans has extensive experience in business development, business strategy, business modeling, business process building and market size assessment. Also, Aldis is an experienced mentor and trainer.
Alexander Berlin is a professional startup developer and investment adviser on the European level. He has a strong financial background as well as advanced skills in programming, software conception and good understanding of internet technologies.
Alexander Berlin is also an experienced EU project manager and works on the development of a competitive European entrepreneurial infrastructure at projects like Diversity and FIWARE. He is a part of advisory groups on the EU level.
