The first Euro-Med Hackathon, devoted to the theme "Eco-Efficiency in Agro-Food Chain", will take place in Jordan, from December 14th until the 15th 2016. The initiative stands out as a marathon where young innovators compete, presenting the jury of experts ground-breaking projects to be launched on the market.

Euro-Med Hackathon is coordinated by IAMB Ciheam (the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute in Bari) which aims at improving the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation for research and innovation. In particular, the focus areas are three major social challenges:water, food and energy. These points are perfectly shared by Seeds&Chips, Global Food Innovation Summit, supporting young people around the world having sustainable development projects.

In Hackathon 2016, 30 young innovators coming from 10 Mediterranean countries (such as Algeria, Egypt, Greece and Morocco) will present different projects, touching several hot themes. For instance, precision agriculture, vertical farming, social farming and effective water use.

Three winners will have the chance to take part in Seeds&Chips 2017, to be held in Milan in May 2017. This will be a great chance for the competitors to increase their visibility on the international platform. In fact, Milan will host foreign companies but also universities and research centres from all over the world. Some popular participants of last editions were the World Food Programme, the UN Agency for Industrial Development in Developing countries and the European Commission. Among the education giants, there were the Politecnico in Milan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hackathon will open up with the lecture of Marco Gualtieri, founder and chairman of Seeds&Chips, who will highlight the great need for the planet to develop alternative models of production, distribution and commercialization of agri-food programs.

"We are proud to give our contribution to the development of innovative projects coming from the brilliant minds of young people from Mediterranean countries", Mr Gualtieri stressed, putting a spotlight on the importance of human resources to elaborate effective tools for sustainable development.

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