The first QuattroPole cross-border hackathon will take place on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 December 2023, bringing together the cities of Luxembourg, Metz (France), Saarbrücken and Trier (both in Germany) to find digital solutions for health.

The four QuattroPole cities explained in a joint press release that a hackathon sees small teams develop creative and digital solutions in a short time (a few hours or a few days) in response to a predefined question or challenge.

The first edition of the QuattroPole hackathon focuses on health, in a broad sense, from the medical field, to occupational health, including general well-being and a healthy and sustainable urban environment. Each city, in collaboration with local public or private partners, has defined the challenges to be met.

A total prize of €22,000 is available to be shared among the winners of the hackathon.

The QuattroPole hackathon will take place simultaneously and synchronously in the four cities, throughout the two days of the event. The main location of the event is Saarbrücken, at East Side Fab co-working space, where the 27-hour competition will start on Friday at noon. East Side Fab, as well as the three other sites - The Pool/BLIDA in Metz, Luxembourg City Incubator in Luxembourg and Medizin Campus Trier (MCT) in Trier - will be permanently connected via a video link.

The 100 or so participants already registered (employees, self-employed, students) will be divided into teams of three to four people for the different challenges and will all be accompanied by trainers who will advise them throughout the competition.

In each city, on Saturday from 15:00, a jury of experts will discuss the best solutions proposed to the different challenges and will reward these with prizes of €3,000 each. In addition, a QuattroPole prize worth €1,000 will be awarded to the team that has best integrated the cross-border dimension into its project.

At the end of the event, the winning projects will receive dedicated support in order to finalise the first results produced and presented during the event.