During the COVID-19 pandemic, civic tech opens new opportunities to support citizen engagement, participation, service delivery and initiative. The East Europe Foundation with financial support by the European Union launches the acceleration programme Act to Connect for civic tech solution development teams, in the framework of the “3D Project (Development Despite Disruption: Resilient civil society in a time of COVID-19 and beyond).
This contest aims to bring together the civic and the socially responsible IT sector to develop innovative digital products that will help civil society respond effectively to the challenges of the pandemic.
“The European Union supports the creation of civil society-driven, innovative and sustainable e-solutions in response to public concerns. We believe that pandemic lockdown conditions also offer opportunities to digitalise civil society work and come up with creative solutions to work together despite disruptions”, – said Sinziana Poiana, Programme Officer for Civil Society Support in the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
Civic technologies are digital tools that make communication between the state and citizens more comfortable and help engage them in resolving current issues at the local or national level.
“The competition aims to develop innovation capacity and to support projects that address problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The jury will assess the level of competence and interest of team members in their work, the ability to implement an idea and develop it throughout the life cycle”, ‒ commented Natalia Slynko, East Europe Foundation Programme Director.
The prize fund for the competition amounts to 5 million UAH. We invite teams of public activists, small and medium-sized business representatives, representatives of state and municipal enterprises, local governments and charitable organisations, non-governmental organisations, initiative groups, developers, engineers, and students to take part in the competition.
Contestants can submit their applications until 28 February 2021. An expert jury will select and invite the best projects to participate in the online hackathon.
An online informational meeting will take place on Thursday, January 21 at 3 p.m upon registration.
Background information:
The 3D Project (Development Despite Disruption: Resilient civil society in a time of COVID-19 and beyond) is an EU-funded project implemented by East Europe Foundation, supporting the empowerment of Ukrainian civil society to confront the effects of COVID-19. The project lasts from October 2020 to April 2022.
For additional information, please contact us via [email protected].
East Europe Foundation
