Galway’s innovators join biggest global climate action hackathon in history at NUI Galway led event to reduce carbon footprint of Galway City

Galway City’s innovators today (26 October) join over 100 cities across 44 countries on six continents in a day of innovation to generate pioneering ideas that could lead Galway towards the zero-carbon economy of the future.

Climathon Galway 2018 harnesses the energy and dynamism of all interested groups and individuals to develop and scale innovations towards a zero-carbon future for Galway City. Prospective innovators join Challenge teams, each addressing a range of sustainability challenges, ranging from energy efficient buildings, substitution of plastics to low carbon diets.  

This is the third year that Galway has participated in the Global Climathon hackathon, which is again hosted by NUI Galway’s Ryan Institute, in partnership with TechInnovate and the Portershed in Galway’s Innovation District.

Professor Charles Spillane, Director of the Ryan Institute at NUI Galway, highlights: “Cities consume over two-thirds of the world’s energy and account for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions. With 90 percent of the world’s urban areas situated on coastlines, cities are at high risk from some of the devastating impacts of climate change, such as rising sea levels and powerful coastal storms. Coastal cities such as Galway are on the frontlines of global climate change and are well-positioned to play a leadership role with sister cities worldwide in driving global action to address climate change. The Climathon event presents a unique annual opportunity for multiple innovators, groups and individuals to work together to develop and scale innovations towards a zero-carbon footprint horizon-point for Galway city districts, sectors and inhabitants.”

At Galway Climathon 2018, each team develops their own innovation idea throughout the one-day event, facilitated by the Techinnovate team based at NUI Galway, culminating in a pitch competition at the end of the day before a judging panel. The top three teams will receive prizes, supports and advice to progress their innovations on to accelerator and entrepreneurship programs that will in turn translate them into start-up companies, social enterprises or funded projects/programmes.

The global initiative Climate-KIC is an annual event that empowers individuals and organisations to work together in order to develop new solutions to the climate crisis at the city scale. Originally conceptualised as a 24-hour hackathon by Climate-KIC, Climathon has since taken off as a global movement, engaging citizens on climate action, and providing cities with continued support on the unique challenges they face.

Dr Peter McKeown and Dr David Styles from the MSc in Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) program at NUI Galway, indicated: “Galway can lead in this global challenge, having been in the firing line of a number of powerful storms over the past few years. It is therefore apt that Galway harnesses the creativity and international innovation leadership for which it is renowned to lead global efforts in climate mitigation.”

Climathon 2018 provides a unique opportunity for innovators, change agents and stakeholders in Galway to ideate new technologies or ways to implement existing technologies that can effectively decarbonise the city, and, indeed, other cities globally.

For more details on Climathon 2018, visit: https://climathon.climate-kic.org/galway and follow updates on Twitter: @GalwayClimathon ‏

For more information on Climate-KIC, visit: https://climathon.climate-kic.org/en/cities.

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