Join researchers, developers, students, and ocean advocates for the first hackathon of the Co-Creating a Better Blue (C2B2) programme — a three-week online event dedicated to tackling real-world challenges in marine spatial data. Participants will collaborate across disciplines to build open digital tools and approaches that support better, data-driven decisions for sustainable ocean management.
- Where: Online
- When: 22 September – 12 October 2025
The Challenge
Marine geospatial data is essential. Too often, however, data is scattered, hard to work with, or missing where it is most needed. This creates barriers for environmental protection as well as maritime activities.
What you will do
This hackathon invites you to take action in one of two impactful ways:
- Fill the Gaps: Help address the data gaps identified in our gap analysis. This could mean building data pipelines, improving existing datasets, proposing new sensing techniques, or exploring creative visualizations that generate new insights.
- Improve the Tool: Contribute to the development of an open-source web application for visualizing and analyzing marine geospatial data. Designed for users with no programming or GIS expertise, the tool aims to make marine data more accessible to a broad audience. You’ll help extend the functionality of the tool, based on a development plan and technical documentation.
The tool and data developed during the hackathon will directly contribute to the C2B2 project’s mission of advancing sustainable ocean management through improved access to marine spatial information. They will be used in the project’s Living Labs to support real-world experiments into better ways to manage our oceans.
Format
The C2B2 Hackathon #1 is a three-week online event taking place from 22 September to 12 October 2025.
- Participants can join individually or form teams of up to 4 people. Registration will remain open until the 18th of September 23:59 CET.
- On the first day (22 September), all participants will receive:
- A survey of available marine data and a gap analysis.
- A guide to how to create analysis ready data with a variety of tools.
- A technical description and development plan for the open-source web application.
- Invitations to five online seminars with C2B2 researchers and external experts to discuss the challenges and explore opportunities.
- During the three-week period, teams will work on their solutions. Mentors and technical support from the C2B2 project team will be available throughout.
- Participants will submit their final solutions by the end of the hackathon (12 October).
- A panel of judges will evaluate the submissions between 13–17 October, and winners will be announced no later than 20 October 2025.
Submitted solutions will be assessed based on innovation, environmental impact, technical soundness, user experience, and potential for real-world application. Solutions that align with the goals of the C2B2 project and show promise for use in Living Labs will be particularly valued.
Participants retain full ownership of their ideas and prototypes. However, all contributions submitted to the C2B2 Hackathon will be released under an open license to ensure broad accessibility and encourage reuse and further development. The C2B2 Hackathon promotes open collaboration and innovation with the aim of fostering solutions that contribute to sustainable marine management.
Prizes
The best contributions will be rewarded!
Prizes will recognize both technical excellence and real-world impact. The winning teams will receive SuperPresentkort gift cards:
🥇 1st prize: 5,000 SEK gift card
🥈 2nd prize: 3,000 SEK gift card
🥉 3rd prize: 2,000 SEK gift card
About the Hosts
The C2B2 Hackathon is organized by Co-Creating a Better Blue (C2B2) in partnership with Digital Earth Sweden.
C2B2 is a collaborative research initiative uniting academia, government, industry, and civil society to advance sustainable ocean management. The project champions inclusive, knowledge-based innovation and open science to support the use, restoration, and protection of coastal and marine ecosystems. By bridging gaps between data, decision-making, and action, C2B2 empowers more informed and effective marine policies and practices.
Digital Earth Sweden is a platform for satellite data covering Sweden and the Baltic Sea, aiming to make Earth observation data more accessible and useful to a wide range of users. Built on the National Space Data Lab launched in 2019, it integrates storage, processing, and AI-based analysis of satellite data in one place. The platform follows an Australian model with an open data cube and supports sectors like weather and climate monitoring. By tailoring European Space Agency data to Swedish needs, it helps society address challenges such as climate change at both national and international levels.
Who It’s For
Anyone passionate about oceans and open data! Ideal for students, developers, GIS professionals, marine researchers, designers, and innovators.
Registration
Register by clicking the link below. You may participate alone or in a team of maximum 4 persons. All team members must register and state their team name. If you do not have a team, check the box stating that you are looking for a team and we will do our best to pair you up.
Registration is now open, and closes on the 18th of September.
Feel free to download and share the poster (pdf) and the banner (png) below:
