Save Lives, Businesses & Communities in The North Atlantic Corona Challenge
COMMUNITY
Writer: Ajaana Arndis Olsvig Kristjansdottir Photographs: NORA/HIE
May 2020
#SAVE LIVES #SAVE BUSINESSES #SAVE COMMUNITIES
These are the three themes of focus in the upcoming online North Atlantic Corona challenge which will be held this coming May 29th - 31st. Young people living countries bordering the North Atlantic - Greenland, Iceland, Scotland, Coastal Norway and the The Faroe Islands - are being challenged to develop their great ideas and compete for cash prizes up to 30.000 DKK.
“We are focusing on young people aged 18 to 30, who live in our sparsely populated areas in the north Atlantic but are not exempt from the crisis, even though numbers of infected have been low in a global comparison. We want to inspire young generations to work together to combat the pandemic,” says NORA advisor Øystein Andresen.
The hackathon is a collaboration between the North Atlantic Cooperation, NORA, based in the Faroe Islands and the Highlands and Islands Enterprise, HIE, based in Scotland and supported by various organisations and companies.
Young people aged 18-30 in the region with backgrounds such as coding, data design, healthcare or engineering are encouraged to sign-up. The aim is to come up with ideas and solutions that address the most pressing challenges caused by the current crisis such as combating loneliness and making COVID-19 screening easier for remote communities. The challenge will focus on three specific areas: to help save lives, communities and businesses and prizes awarded to the three best solutions across all themes.
“Since the outbreak of the pandemic, many similar virtual challenges have taken place throughout Europe and have delivered very exciting innovations,” says Kateryna McKinnon, European Manager at the Highlands and Islands Enterprise. “ This one is tailored at the rural north Atlantic area specifically, addressing our region’s preconditions.”
“This is a great opportunity to generate good ideas and prototype solutions which could be developed into commercial products, but also crucially help ‘save lives’. We look forward to our bright young minds in the region to connect online and use their expertise to help turn ideas into something that can make a difference to the problems linked with the current pandemic.”
Jury criteria is amongst imformation on the challenge given on the webpage www.coronachallenge.fo. The criteria is:
Originality - The project needs to create new solutions or apply existing solutions in a new, innovative way
Realistic - The project must be realistic in terms of the legal, technological and scientific aspects of the solution. It should be possible to realize the project within a few months (exceptions can be made for particularly impactful solutions with a long-term perspective)
Impact - The project should make a real difference in the struggle to help local communities and/or companies in the North Atlantic region. It should make a significant positive change for a large number of people or for businesses particularly affected by the corona virus. The project should be demand-led and with a commercial potential
More information on the challenge, prizes, conditions and registration (already open) is given on the projects website: coronachallenge.fo
Ajaana Arndis Olsvig Kristjansdottir is JONAA’s social media coordinator and a writer for both JONAA and IceNews. Of both Greenlandic and Icelandic origin, Ajaana grew up in Greenland but attended university in Iceland for her studies in Tourism, a field she has worked in, in both countries. Ajaana speaks both West and East Greenlandic, in addition to Icelandic and several other languages - a valuable skill for a media, focusing in the Arctic, to have onboard.
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