In December 2025 we brought together teams from across Europe to imagine, design, and prototype the next generation of green and digital solutions.
The LOTUS Open Innovation Hackathon was a three-day, all-digital event that brought together students, researchers, startups, and university staff to co-create solutions responding to real sustainability and digital transformation challenges inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Across Europe, universities play a growing role in driving green and digital transitions, but many innovation ecosystems remain fragmented. The hackathon strengthened collaboration between academia, students, and external partners turning ideas into impactful solutions.
Through a dynamic mix of expert workshops, mentoring, teams’ co-creation and live pitching sessions, participants refined their project ideas and transformed them into validated, actionable blueprints.
Student teams, research groups, academic staff, and early-stage startups — and any mix of these — took the opportunity to showcase their innovation and make measurable impact.
Eligibility at a glance:
An organisation, company, or public body presenting a real-world sustainability or digitalisation challenge. Challenge owners ensured the hackathon remained connected to real market and societal needs by engaging directly with participating teams and evaluating proposed solutions. In this edition, the challenges were identified by the LOTUS consortium partners.
A pre-formed team of students, researchers, startup members, or university staff that took part with an idea already in mind. Teams worked intensively to refine their concept, test its viability, and pitch their solution to an international jury, supported by expert mentors and workshops.
The LOTUS Hackathon aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, providing a framework for innovation with purpose. Teams are encouraged to select the challenge that best matches their expertise and passion.
Each challenge contributes to one or more SDGs, including:
Teams that joined the LOTUS Open Innovation Hackathon got:
Collaborate with peers and experts across Europe.
Receive personalised guidance from mentors in sustainability, business, and digital innovation.
Attend high-value workshops on value creation, business modelling, and pitching.
Present your idea to an international jury and gain exposure across the LOTUS network.
Access post-hackathon mentoring and potential acceleration opportunities through the LOTUS Mentoring scheme.
Strengthen your team's entrepreneurial, problem-solving, and communication skills.
Higher education institutions generate large amounts of waste — from food packaging and office materials to laboratory disposables. While sustainability pledges are growing, practical waste-reduction systems often lag behind. The challenge is to design smart, scalable, and data-driven solutions that help universities and organizations transition toward zero-waste operations, reducing, reusing, and tracking resources more efficiently.
Inspiring business models of real companies:
Related SDG(s): 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production; 13 – Climate Action
Mobility is a major contributor to emissions, congestion, and energy waste — both on campuses and in urban areas. The challenge is to develop solutions that make sustainable commuting and local travel the default choice. Ideas should make low-carbon mobility practical, trackable, and attractive to individuals and organizations alike.
Inspiring business models of real companies:
Related SDG(s): 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities; 13 – Climate Action
Research and industrial labs consume vast resources — energy, chemicals, and single-use materials — making them among the least sustainable workspaces. The challenge is to reimagine laboratory operations through digitalization, circularity, and smart management, reducing environmental impact without compromising performance or safety.
Inspiring business models of real companies:
Related SDG(s): 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production
As digitalisation accelerates, burnout, stress, and information overload are rising challenges in academia and beyond. The opportunity lies in using AI and data-driven technologies to foster wellbeing, balance, and human-centric productivity. Solutions should respect privacy while helping users manage workloads, focus, and mental health.
Inspiring business models of real companies:
Related SDG(s): 3 – Good Health and Well-Being; 4 – Quality Education
Gender inequality remains a barrier to innovation and economic growth. Women entrepreneurs and professionals still face limited access to capital, visibility, and leadership roles. The challenge is to create entrepreneurial or digital solutions that actively close gender gaps — from inclusive funding tools and career platforms to AI-driven analytics that uncover systemic bias.
Inspiring business models of real companies:
Related SDG(s): 5 – Gender Equality; 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth
Local SMEs and public bodies often face challenges in digitalisation and sustainability but lack internal innovation capacity. Meanwhile, students and researchers seek real-world experience. The challenge is to build solutions that connect university talent with regional needs, creating mutual value and tangible impact.
Inspiring business models of real companies:
Related SDG(s): 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth; 17 – Partnerships for the Goals
Biodiversity loss and land degradation are escalating crises. The challenge is to design technology-enabled or nature-based solutions that protect, restore, and monitor biodiversity — turning environmental responsibility into innovation and opportunity.
Inspiring business models of real companies:
Related SDG(s): 13 – Climate Action; 15 – Life on Land
Cities face pressure to decarbonise, digitalise, and stay livable. The challenge is to design data-driven, citizen-centred, and scalable urban solutions that improve life quality while reducing environmental impact.
Inspiring business models of real companies:
Related SDG(s): 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities; 13 – Climate Action
From the first call for applications to the final pitching session, the whole process ran in just over six weeks — moving quickly from an open call, through hands-on implementation, to a live final.
Along the way, every application was reviewed, six finalist teams got dedicated support to sharpen their pitches, and the strongest ideas were recognised in front of an international jury.
Call announcement
Call deadline
Applications results communicated to applicants
Hackathon implementation
Review of pitches and selection of 6 best ideas
Announcement of finalists, to present in the "Final pitching" session
Finalists' support in fine-tuning their pitches
Final pitching and winners announcement
Teams of 2 or more members composed of students, researchers, startups, or staff (academic or non-academic), from anywhere around Europe. Cross-disciplinary teams were strongly encouraged.
No — the LOTUS Hackathon was designed for teams with existing ideas. Individual matchmaking was not part of this event.
Each team could apply with one idea only, addressing one specific challenge from the official LOTUS Hackathon Challenge List.
Ideas proposed an innovative and feasible solution aligned with one of the published challenges — a new concept, a prototype, or an early-stage project that could be developed further during the hackathon.
When applying, teams chose the challenge that best fit their idea’s focus, from the challenge list published on the Hackathon website.
The hackathon took place fully online over three consecutive mornings, featuring workshops, mentoring, and collaborative team work. A final pitching session followed, where finalist teams presented their solutions to an international jury.
Participation was free of charge for all selected teams.
Teams had access to expert mentors, interactive workshops, and digital collaboration tools. Mentors guided them through value proposition design, business modelling, and pitching preparation.
An international jury evaluated all final pitches based on:
Winning and high-potential teams continue to receive personalised mentoring through the LOTUS Mentoring Service and may join acceleration or showcase activities supported by the LOTUS consortium.
The Open Innovation Hackathon ran 10–19 December 2025, with teams from across Europe pitching green and digital solutions. More LOTUS initiatives are on the way.