Application Deadline Extended

What is the program about?

Ekonnect Knowledge Foundation and U.S. Consulate General Mumbai are pleased to announce the Climate Hackathon program.

Encourage the development of innovative ideas and solutions for transitioning to greener campuses

Enable educational institutions to build climate resilience

Empower students to become catalysts in adapting to the climate risks

The program envisions to translate teaching into practice and support students and educational institutions to pilot innovative solutions on their campuses towards adapting to the climate risks. The program also involves skill development of the students from participating teams on entrepreneurial skills, leadership, critical thinking, and risk assessment making them proficient for the real-world challenges and opportunities.

All educational institutions or universities and students belonging to the age group of 15 to 25 years from all education streams within Maharashtra, Gujrat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh are invited to participate in the program.

Thematic Areas

Applications are invited from the eligible applicants addressing any of the following thematic areas:

How would you improve energy efficiency of the built environment on campus specific to campus’s cooling requirements?

How would you make a “zero waste to landfill campus”?

How would you improve the performance of campus on water stewardship?

How would you implement sustainable commuters’ choice on the campus?

How would you make the campus more breathable?

The solutions provided by participating teams under the thematic areas can be implemented into any of the following four categories:

Infrastructure Projects

Design, construction, installation, and commissioning of sustainability projects on campus. This would also involve making proposals to the eco-club and sustainability committee for fund mobilization. 

Examples: Water treatment, reduction in heat stress on campus, waste management.

Decision Making Tools

Projects that would involve development of software-based and app-based tools that enable decision making as a response to climate risks specific to educational institutions and universities. 

Examples: Development of a tool for early warning systems for students, development of a tool for measuring and monitoring energy consumption, Greenhouse gas emissions, etc.

Policies and Operations Management

Projects that would involve working with the eco-club and sustainability committee in measuring baseline, data collection and analysis to determine policy changes, and manage the operations, maintenance and up-gradation of existing projects on site. 

Examples: policy on green procurement, waste recycling, green events, etc.

Awareness and Behavior Change Communication

Projects that would involve behavioral change, training and generating awareness among the student community through sustainability drives and curriculum changes.

Stages of Climate Hackathon

Why should you apply?

Eligibility Criteria: Who can Hack?

• Participants must be between the age group of 15 to 25 years.
• Participants must be enrolled in any educational institution or university. No restriction on the education stream.
• Participants must apply as a team of 2 or 4 members, ensuring equal gender representation. For example, a 2-member team must include individuals of different genders, and a 4-member team must include 2 members of each gender i.e., 2 women and 2 men.
• Participant teams must apply with a letter of intent from the institute or university they are enrolled in.
• The educational institution or university must be operating within Maharashtra, Gujrat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh are invited to participate in the program.

How to make a successful application?

POINT 1
Completeness of the application

POINT 2
Alignment with any of the thematic areas

POINT 3
Degree of innovation in problem solving

POINT 4
Feasibility of implementation

POINT 5
Proposed utilization of financial assistance

POINT 6
Impact on all involved parties

General Rules and Guidelines

• The proposed solution should be explicitly aligned to at least one of the five thematic areas and should demonstrate positive environmental and social impact.
• The proposed solution should be original and innovative.
• The proposed solution must be implemented on the campus of the institute or university the participating teams are enrolled in.
• The same team can submit more than one solution for one thematic area and can participate in all five thematic areas. However, use a unique email address for each submission. Please note, only one solution will be selected out of all the submitted applications.
• Only completed entries will be accepted. Submissions which are incomplete will be considered invalid and disqualified from the screening process.
• Only the submissions made through the Application Form will be accepted. Please ensure that all the sections in the Application Form are duly filled with the information requested.
• A professor or a staff member from the educational institution or university should accompany the participating team during a 2-day bootcamp and provide necessary mentoring and handholding support to the team on behalf of the institution or university. The profile of the professor or staff member must be included in the application form.
• The shortlisted teams shall be notified by email one week prior to the physical bootcamp. The teams must confirm their participation within three days of the notification.  
• The bootcamp will be conducted in one of the institutions in MMR. No allowances will be provided for travel and accommodation. Organizers will make the arrangements for food and refreshments on both days of the bootcamp.
• Financial assistance of INR 1,50,000 /- (One Lakh Fifty Thousand only) will be provided to the winning teams’ institution or university for implementation of the proposed solution. The financial assistance will be disbursed against the reimbursement request claimed by the winning teams’ institution or university.
• Project implementation timeline should not be more than 3 months or 90 days after the date of commencement.
• All participants own the rights to their ideas. Participants must properly acknowledge any trademarks, patented or copyrighted materials included in the application.
• Submitted applications will be treated as confidential. The only people with access to the application will be the evaluation panel, partners and select members from the organizers.
• The program focuses on providing equal opportunity by offering relevant support to all applicants and making best efforts to make decisions.
• The organizers reserve the right to disqualify any participating team member or the entire team who is found to have violated the guidelines of the program and terms and conditions stated at any stage/ phase of the program. The decision of the panel shall be final and binding.
• The winning teams and institutions or universities agree to the use of their names, photographs, and any other relevant information relating to any publicity-related activities.
• The organizers reserve the right to amend these terms and conditions at any point in line with the overall objectives of the program. 

Evaluation Panel

Please follow U.S. Consulate General, Mumbai (X/ Facebook) and Ekonnect Knowledge Foundation on LinkedIn/ X/ Instagram/ Facebook to keep up to date with the announcements.

For further queries, kindly write to us at sameer.kulkarni@ekonnect.net or sivaranjani@ekonnect.net.