For a 7th consecutive year, Innovation Starter is organizing Innovation Academy 2020 – Bulgaria Innovation Hackathon for students in collaboration with the leading Bulgarian universities.

Vladimir Danailov, Deputy Mayor of Sofia for Digitalisation, Innovation and Economic Development, will join the opening session of the Innovation Hackathon.

The event will take place as a 24-hour hackathon – a competition with elements of programming and prototyping. The winning team of students with the most creative and applicable idea will receive a prize of 10 000 leva, provided by the European Investment Bank, and a visit to Brussels with the institutional support of the European Commission in Bulgaria.

The hackathon will be hosted by the Peroto Literary Club where on the 5th and 6th June 2020 the participants will be able to develop their ideas and will have 15 minutes to present them as presentations and demo versions of products and services under the mentorship of the jury, the partners and the members of the organizers.

Due to the measures, introduced in the country because of COVID-19, the event will be held online via remote work with mentors and online jurying. In this case, the results of the competition will be announced on the official website and Facebook page of the Hackathon.

In addition to the grand prize for the winning team, two more ideas will be awarded special cash prizes and awards from the partners of Innovation Academy 2020.

Innovation Academy 2020 is organised with the institutional support of the European Commission in Bulgaria and Sofia Municipality and with the general support of the European Investment Bank, the America for Bulgaria Foundation and the National Palace of Culture.

The project follows the principles of the Stanford d.school Faculty of Innovation – an external educational platform and a training initiative for students and mentors from different specialties and all universities in Bulgaria, during which students acquire an intensive knowledge about innovation and present their startup projects in front of a jury of professors, the business, and NGOs.