What is Climathon?
Climathon Bratislava is the most significant innovative event that brings together experienced mentors, experts from practice, technical or business leaders, and enthusiasts from all over Slovakia to address the climate change in our region.
For four years now, Bratislava and its residents have been creating solutions that help our city become more resilient.
Climathon Bratislava is a part of the global initiative Climathon, which involves more than 140 cities from 56 countries worldwide. It is powered by EIT Climate KIC and EIT Urban mobility, which implement innovative green solutions and create more livable urban spaces within the EU.
170 participants
30 mentors
Solutions to
3 current challenges
Win up to 10,000 EUR
in prizes
170 participants
30 mentors
Solutions to
3 current challenges
Win up to 10,000 EUR
in prizes

Our goal is better Bratislava
The vision of the City of Bratislava is to become a resilient and sustainable city that provides a livable urban space to its citizens. As part of the Climathon, the city is addressing the need for the efficient functioning of the city´s infrastructure and creating services that support the city´s climate resilience. Innovative solutions are based on live city data and valuable data from partners, which can only be accessed during the Climathon.
Our goal is better Bratislava
The vision of the City of Bratislava is to become a resilient and sustainable city that provides a livable urban space to its citizens. As part of the Climathon, the city is addressing the need for the efficient functioning of the city´s infrastructure and creating services that support the city´s climate resilience. Innovative solutions are based on live city data and valuable data from partners, which can only be accessed during the Climathon.

“For Bratislava to be a strong and sustainable city for living, it must make strategic decisions based on data, but in order to do so, it needs the help of its residents as well.”

Petra Dzurovčinová,
Commissioner for Innovations of the City of Bratislava
“For Bratislava to be a strong and sustainable city for living, it must make strategic decisions based on data, but in order to do so, it needs the help of its residents as well.”

Petra Dzurovčinová,
Commissioner for Innovations of the City of Bratislava
Theme
The challenge of the second year of Climathon 2021 was to find solutions that would make the City of Bratislava more resilient to climate change.
Participants could focus on various areas such as prediction and visualization of climate stressors (heat islands, floods, etc.), more efficient planning of renewable resources, or optimization of waste management, public transport, and electromobility.
Participants and teams
In the second year, 120 participants joined the challenge, of which 50 joined online, and 70 were present in the modern coworking spaces of HubHub. During the weekend, the teams worked on valuable and innovative solutions, and together they brought 15 projects, of which the jury chose the best three. When creating solutions, the teams had actual data available from the City of Bratislava, Swiss Re, and the companies Solargis, Meteomatics, ZSE, and the city´s company OLO.
Mentors
Experienced mentors guided the participating teams from various fields such as energetics, transportation, technology, and the environment. This year, more than 25 mentors were present, and together with the participants, they created ideas that the teams turned into functional solutions.
City of Bratislava: Ivana Maleš, Eva Streberová, Petra Dzurovnčinová, Martin Vavrek
Swiss Re: Uwe Nagel, Lukáš Csóka, Jakub Ševcech
ZSE: Marek Tomeš, Miroslav Bištuť, Rastislav Žembery,
Other mentors: Guido Oswald, Pavol Magic, Vladimír Klimant, Marek Lavčák, Michal Laco, Martin Veselý, Kai Pham a ďalší
Winning solutions
The winning team KANthon created a solution in the form of a comparator, thanks to which it is possible to evaluate the length of the journey by car compared to public transport between different places in Bratislava. Thanks to the data in the comparator, it is possible to find out which routes are worth taking by public transport and which by car.
Second place went to Ecothusiast, which created a tool capable of identifying the presence of heat islands in different parts of the city based on several factors. The benefit for the city is detecting temperature changes after planting greenery on specific streets.
Third place was awarded to the UnderBranc, who came up with the idea that makes waste collection more efficient. The mobile app allows residents to notify when the trash can is full easily.
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Themes
During the first year of the Climathon, the City of Bratislava defined two challenges that the participants had 48 hours to deal with.
1. How to motivate citizens and involve them in transforming Bratislava into a resistant city to climate change?
2. How to increase the use of urban transport and ecological transport alternatives in the city?
Participants and teams
In the first year, 150 participants from 8 countries participated in the search for solutions, who were divided into teams of 3-7 participants. During this weekend, the participants came up with 25 resulting projects, the best of which were piloted and tested in the city.
Mentors
While working on technological solutions, the teams had at their disposal 26 experienced mentors from various fields, including data analytics, transportation, the energetics sector, and climatology. Thanks to their expertise and experience in the area, they were able to help the participants create feasible and viable projects.
City of Bratislava: Headliner: Eduar Donauer, Milota Sidorová, Pavol Škápik, Tomáš Peciar, Petra Dzurovčinová
Swiss Re: Headliner: Lukáš Csóka, Uwe Nagel, Alicia Montoya, Jakub Ševcech
Other mentors: Vladimír Klimant, Matej Gálik, Adrián Gubčo, Pavol Magic, Pavol Vančo, Andrej Garaj, Kristína Korčeková, Marcel Klimo, Ján Búza, Heliodor Macko
Winning solutions
Holandská spojka is the winning idea that offers cities and residents data on overheating individual city locations. Along with this solution, the Holandská spojka provides specific ways that the municipality can prevent overheating (expansion of greenery). In the application, it is possible to see what effects the recommendations will have on the temperature in the given location.
The winning project of the student category – Swiss Re Students, came up with the idea that thanks to machine learning help to predict city traffic delays and increases the reliability of the arrival of public transport vehicles on time. By using data on the hold of connections from previous months, the system can reduce this time in peak traffic by up to 47%. This service should be integrated into the standard mobile application of the transport company.
Other award-winning solutions:
Main Category
Clima-x is a crowdfunding platform where you can round up the amount for your purchase and use it to support green city projects.
Student category
The City Intelligence Lab team’s project offers an idea in the form of an app for cyclists and pedestrians that can calculate their route to avoid possible rain. This idea has great potential in Bratislava because it rains almost 30% of the days a year.
Geo-Idea Special Prize
It acquired the GOOD solution offering an analytics website that integrates and evaluates data from green urban areas and models their impact on air pollution. It can help the Magistrate of the capital city make better decisions.
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Theme
Team from the third year of Climathon Bratislava created innovative technological solutions that improve life in the city and mitigate the impact of climate change.
The participants had three challenges to choose from: how can the city optimize its services in case of extreme weather and climate events, how the city can be better prepared for expected long-term impacts of climate change, and also how citizens can help the city combat climate change.
Participants and teams
200 attendees took part in Climathon 2022, participants formed 29 teams in total. The teams worked for 48 hours in the modern coworking space of the Hub-Hub. At the end of the weekend, 23 solutions were prepared, from which the expert jury awarded the best 3. Climathon participants had exclusive access to data from the IBL Software Engineering company, which they could use and thus ensure greater relevance of their solutions.
Winning solutions
The winning team Acropolis came up with an idea how to optimize and improve the city’s response to extreme weather fluctuations such as heavy rains or floods.
Second place was taken by a group of innovators called Dapper, who offered a solution to optimize road maintenance using critical infrastructure identification.
Third place went to the Drevokocúr team, which presented a solution to make public transport more efficient thanks to the identification of routes that people use most often.
Mentors
During the weekend, teams had at their disposal more than 30 mentors, with whom they consulted their progress and solutions. The mentors passed on valuable experience and knowledge to the participants in the areas of data analytics, transport, innovation, digital services, and climate and environment.

CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER IN THE CITY OF BRATISLAVA
Petra Dzurovčinová

ENVIRONMENT SPECIALIST AT THE METROPOLITAN INSTITUTE OF BRATISLAVA
Eva Čulová

CIRCULAR ECONOMY EXPERT AT BRATISLAVA
Ivana Maleš

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AT BRATISLAVA
Martin Vavrek

SENIOR SCRUM MASTER AT SWISS RE
Matej Gálik

HEAD OF DATA FOUNDATIONS AT SWISS RE
Lukáš Csóka

DATA SCIENTIST AT SWISS RE
Jakub Ševcech

DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGER AT BRATISLAVA
Mária Kostická

ASSOCIATE PARTNER AND INNOVATION EXPERT AT CIVITTA
Michal Laco

DIGITAL SERVICES EXPERT AT BRATISLAVA
Martina Mihalkovičová

DIGITAL SERVICES EXPERT AT BRATISLAVA
Slavo Oslej

ARCHITECT AND BACK-END DEVELOPER AT BRATISLAVA
Lukáš Polesňák

DIGITAL SERVICES EXPERT AT BRATISLAVA
Zuzana Sidorová

BUSINESS DESIGNER AT THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER SR
Lucia Ciranova

DIGITAL SERVICES EXPERT AT BRATISLAVA
Jakub Hrubý

CO-FOUNDER AT KLÍMA ŤA POTREBUJE
Jakub Hrbáň

ARCHITECT AND BACK-END DEVELOPER AT BRATISLAVA
Martin Pinter

PROJECT MANAGER AT CIVITTA
Martin Veselý

PROJECT MANAGER FOR GREEN ECONOMY
Kristína Korčeková

GEOICT & ENVIRONMENTAL INFRASTRUCTURE COORDINATOR AT MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT
Martin Tuchyňa

INNOVATION CONSULTANT
Baška Klimek

MACHINE LEARNING AT METEOPRESS
Matej Choma

HEAD OF IT OPS AT BRATISLAVA
Rudolf Grujbár

DEVELOPER AT BRATISLAVA
Adam Grund

DIGITAL SERVICES EXPERT AT BRATISLAVA
Sabina Hrabinová

ENVIRONMENT SPECIALIST AT THE METROPOLITAN INSTITUTE OF BRATISLAVA
Jana Božanová

INNOVATION CONSULTANT AT CIVITTA
Anna Pastoreková

CO-FOUNDER & PARTNER CIRCULAR ECONOMY TRANSITION AT MISSIONC
Andrea Orsag

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT PREŠOVSKÁ UNIVERZITA
Miloslav Michalko

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER & OWNER OF IBL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Michal Weis

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AT IBL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Jozef Matula

GIS ANALYST AND URBAN PLANNER AT METROPOLITAN INSTITUTE OF BRATISLAVA
Martin Jancovic

ROAD MAINTANANCE AT BRATISLAVA
Michal Lisinovič

HEAD OF STRATEGY AND PROJECTS DEPARTMENT AT BRATISLAVA
Viera Sláviková

CLIMATE POLICY AT BRATISLAVA
Adela Syslová
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To be updated soon.
In the meantime, fill out pre-registration form and save the date 20-22.10.23.
We are looking forward to meet you!
1. Challenge
How can the city optimize its services in case of extreme weather and climate events?
How can we reduce the impact of extreme weather on Bratislava?
Bratislava needs to build resilience to the impact of extreme weather and climate events. A well-anticipated crisis and effective as well as timely measures can often mean that many lives and properties are saved.
Challenge Description and Context
Over the past three decades, Europe has seen a 60 percent increase in extreme weather events. Because of population density and the concentrated economic assets, cities are immensely vulnerable to the impact of extreme weather and climate events such as storms, heavy rains, windstorms, heat waves, flash floods, or snowfalls.
There are many solutions to counter the devastating effects of extreme weather and climate events on human communities. One of them is an early warning system (through optimizing city´s services and actions), backed by long-term climate forecasting that allows the city to respond to these events in a timely and appropriate manner. In doing so, it is important to make the information available in a form that can be easily understood and used by the executive (e. g. dispatching, road management and maintenance).
Challenge Vision
Faced with this situation, it is necessary to reconsider, how the city and its inhabitants are prepared and react to extreme weather and climate events. New innovative solutions are needed to strengthen city´s resilience to such events and to protect vulnerable communities.
Ideas could be based around, but not limited to:
- Predicting future extreme events – extreme weather forecast applications – (such as heatwaves, extreme snow, and rain fall) and set triggering action if variables apply – creating a framework for monitoring and action system
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- street cleaning management – reschedule when rain is coming or high winds;
- prepare sidewalks for winter maintenance when snow/freezing rain is expected;
- use snow probability function (EFI) to improve preparedness of winter road maintenance (identifying risk of unusual extreme events);
- Encourage people drink more water to avoid dehydration when heat index is high, field volunteers to distribute water to public in hotspot streets;
- Including recommendations for reducing physical activities (such as outdoor sports) during affected hours of the day;
- Informing elderly people by sending informational pamphlet map week ahead of heat wave;
Informing disadvantaged people by SMS to stay more in shadow, deploy mobile shadow tents; - Notifying people with allergies on triggers (sudden temperature change, high winds, high humidity);
- Notifying homes for elderly or other social facilities, such as kindergartens and primary schools run by the city and its local municipalities of upcoming severe weather changes and suggesting measures to be taken to avoid negative impact on human health and service disruptions;
- Estimate transportation demand and delays in bad weather conditions (rain, freezing temp, fog);
- Any other notifications/recommendations applicable to other municipal organisations such as the City ZOO (safety and comfort for employees as well as the animals) or Urban Forests of Bratislava (risk avoidance – droughts, forest fires, safety and wellbeing of visitors, employees, etc.)
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- Utilizing data to better use current city resources and city services – provide effective hyper local services
- Utilising hyperlocal observation data to adapt the maintenance of public spaces, especially those affected by extreme weather (heat waves or heavy rains, e.g. Dúbravka)
- Mapping and monitoring hot spots (or sensitive areas) to support effective action in case of hot and windy weather, when dust particles swirl, causing respiratory problems (road maintenance and watering)
- Closing data gaps between the city and its inhabitants
- Improving adaptive capacity of the urban areas
- Citizen’s involvement in crisis management
- Data visualization via easy-to-understand dashboards
Challenge owner: Technical services and The Bratislava Municipal Enterprise.
Other potential beneficiaries: Operators of social care facilities and services, kindergartens, primary schools, leisure time activities centres for children and youth, other municipal organisations such the City ZOO or Urban Forests of Bratislava.
Data
- Weather data – https://opendata.iblsoft.com (more info on Slack, EDR interface) – Climatological forecast model grids (monthly data up to 2050-2100), weather forecast model (3-day ahead about 2x2km resolution, 10-day lower resolution), current weather observations, historical weather data grids for past 70 years
2. Challenge
How can the city be better prepared for the expected long-term impacts of climate change?
Climate change will significantly influence our behavior in the coming decades. Better understanding of climate change scenarios and related citizens´ behavior will help the city to strategically plan its future development. Thus, it can respond to the changing needs of its citizens.
Challenge Description and Context
Climate change is a long-term phenomenon. To mitigate the future impacts of climate change, we should strategically plan the development of the city in terms of sustainability and climate resilience.
In 2050, in Bratislava we expect a significant increase in the number of summer days (about 25 per year), tropical days (about 15), but a decrease in the number of frost days (about 25) and ice days (about 15). Stronger and more intense storms are expected to become more frequent due to warmer temperatures and humidity.
If the city of Bratislava wants to fight to limit climate change and its impact on people and ecosystems, it must understand different scenarios and related behavior of its citizens and made them integral part of strategical planning of the city development. An understandable visualization of data that forecasts climate change and the behavioral changes of its citizens may enable efficient decision-making and strategic planning.
Engaging a variety of stakeholders beyond city staff and leaders (including NGO, Business representatives, educational institutions, and community members) in the climate resilience planning process helps to ensure more coordinated and appropriate actions are chosen and implemented.
Challenge Vision
We seek for solutions that enable city planners and other professionals to better understand and assess anticipated impacts of global climate change and act at the local level. The solutions should build upon previous work (Atlas hodnotenia zraniteľnosti.pdf)
Ideas could be based around, but not limited to:
- Extrapolate the behaviour of the city in the future based on climate prediction models in decades to come – Shared Socioeconomic Pathways Scenarios
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- explore future rainfall patterns: when frequent severe rain is expected, city may for example needs to extend capacity of sewerage to handle X more than today;
- analyze growth in need of more water over time (based on precipitation, temperatures, ratio of rainy and dry days) for growing number of city’s green islands/roofs;
- encourage certain amount/percentage of houses to implement green roofs, based on temperature rise expected to sustain city temperature;
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- Utilizing data to better preparedness of the city for anticipated impacts of climate change
- Support an inclusive and participatory planning process that integrates city planning activities with local community and other relevant stakeholders’ participation
- Support for more structured and transparent strategic planning.
- Information and capacity building for urban planners and professionals from related fields
Challenge owner: Strategic city department, Metropolitan institute of Bratislava.
Data
- Climate data (more info on Slack)– forecast for scenarios SSP1-SSP5 for temperature (incl. max/min), precipitation, snowfall, humidityi, wind speed, total runoff – daily and monthly averages are available, historical weather data grids for past 70 years for hypothesis verification purposes
3. Challenge
Open Challenge: How can we as citizens help the city combat climate change?
Climate change affects our everyday lives in many different forms. However, our daily decisions, choices and consumption patterns are often strong drivers of climate change. Changing our behavioral patterns can unlock a crucial climate impact potential.
Challenge Description and Context
The message of the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is unequivocal: If we want to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 C by the end of the century, we need to reduce emissions to net-zero by 2050 – otherwise we risk dire climate consequences.
Sometimes, “the power of habit” often locks us into inappropriate and unhealthy patterns of behaviour. And this is what makes addressing climate change especially difficult.
How can we break this circle of unsustainable lifestyle? How can we inspire, motivate and support the citizens to making low-carbon and environmentally conscious choices?
How can the city motivate its residents? (e.g. parking policy, traffic restrictions)
Challenge Vision
In order to make a meaningful and measurable impact, as many people as possible need to make the right choices as often as possible. From this perspective, the main objective of this challenge is to motivate and support the citizens in more sustainable ways of life, in terms of:
- Energy saving behavior
- Consumption of local products and products with low carbon emissions
- Reducing food waste
- Sustainable travel/commute alternatives, micromobility
- Engage in circular economy activities and improve waste management
- Water consumption
Challenge owner: City of Bratislava.
Data
Use data and “the power of numbers” to motivate the citizens to change their behavior towards climate friendlier. More info on Slack.
What is happening after Climathon Bratislava?
Winning project
Creating pilot versions and testing
Incorporation of comments
Creating services and its implementation
Join us for the upcoming Climathon
Stay informed about all details for Climathon 2023.
Join us for the upcoming Climathon
Stay informed about all details for Climathon 2023.
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FAQs
What is Climathon Bratislava 2022?
Climathon Bratislava is the largest innovation event that brings together hackers, mentors, city exerts, data scientists and business leaders from Slovakia.
Climathon Bratislava is part of global initiative that connects 140 cities from 56 countries around the globe. Climathon is powered by Climate KIC, that supports the implementation of green solutions within European Union.
Who can register?
Participants of all academic and professional backgrounds are welcome. Project managers, IT specialists, data scientists, marketing experts, entrepreneurs, innovators, and students who are interested in technology and the green environment.
We highly recommend you to form a team (4-5 people) prior to the hackathon. Each team member needs to register separately, under the same team name. It is advised to have a diverse team.
What if I don’t have a team?
You can still register as a solo hacker and we will try our best to match you with other solo hackers who are looking for a team.
Where is the venue?
Climathon Bratislava will take place in Hub Hub Twin City C
Address: Mlynské nivy 16, 811 09 Bratislava
Where can I find a schedule?
Detailed schedule will be published on this website soon.
What are the prizes for Climathon Bratislava 2022?
Money prize by place and prize-package from partners.
1st place: EUR 5,000, 2nd place: EUR 3,000, 3rd place: EUR 2,000.
What happens after Climathon?
After Climathon, the winning teams will have an opportunity to co-develop and implement the solutions with the cooperation of the city of Bratislava.
Where will I sleep?
Accommodation is not provided for participants. However, our venue (HubHub) is located near the city center, so we advise you to find accommodation in the neighborhood.
What should I bring?
You will need a laptop for your hacking. If you wish to bring any additional hardware (monitor, etc) you are more than welcome. Food will be provided on the premises (3 meals per day, drinks and snacks). Should you have any questions about what to bring, do not hesitate to contact us.
Does this cost money?
Thanks to our partners, hackathon is free of charge for registered participants.