Climathon contest for students and creatives: BTU teams can win prize money of 1,000 euros!

The German-Polish Climathon is coming up! In the team contest for students, which will be held for the first time in 2025 as part of the Decarbon Days, challenges in the field of green energy and industry will be accepted and solved. The teams can choose from five different tasks. The tasks are designed in such a way that they can be solved by students without in-depth specialised knowledge. Participants receive training in advance and then develop solutions for real-life problems in clean energy and industry at the end of June.

Teams from BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and the University of Zielona Gora

The selected teams from BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and the University of Zielona Gora will present their solutions in the final on a large stage and in front of an audience in a 10-minute live presentation. A jury will then select the winning team. All presentations will be streamed live and made available online.

About the Climathon: The Climathon was inspired by the popular hackathon concept. However, the aim is not to develop programmes or software, but solutions in the field of cleantech. The winning team will receive prize money totalling 1,000 euros. The contest is to become an integral part of the Decarbon Days. It is being organised in close cooperation with the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and the Zielona Gora University of Applied Sciences, supported by the Euroregion. Cross-border networking is an essential part of the format. Companies from Germany and Poland are also involved as partners in the contest.

Who can take part? The Climathon is a German-Polish cooperation project between the partner universities BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and the University of Zielona Góra. It is primarily aimed at students from both universities. In addition, creative professionals and entrepreneurs from the cultural and creative industries (entrepreneurs, founders, Staff Members, freelancers, trainees) from the Polish and German parts of the Spree-Neisse-Bober Euroregion can take part in the team contest.

The challenge: From 10 a.m. on 19 June, 5 different challenge tasks will be published at www.climathon.eu for all participating teams. The teams can develop a solution for 1-2 of these 5 challenges. They decide for themselves whether they want to solve one challenge in great detail or two challenges at once. The teams will present their solution(s) in a presentation, preferably in English - alternatively also in German or Polish.

Important dates summarised:

• Application period until 23 May
• Selection of the final teams by 27 May
• "Training day" in mid-June
• Handing out of the tasks on 19 June
• Live final at the Decarbon Days on 27 & 28 June

Teams with a minimum of three and a maximum of five participants can apply until 23 May 2025 (contact form at the bottom of the page):www.decarbon-days.eu/climathon