TU Dublin President’s Sustainability Innovation Challenge is an invitation to TU Dublin students across all faculties and campuses to come together at the TU Dublin Grangegorman campus on 04 November 2022 to a hackathon event where they brainstorm ideas to positively impact on a global problem.

This year the focus of the Innovation Challenge is on reducing household food waste. The reduction and/or elimination of food waste is one of the most important challenges faced by mankind. If our current global food system cannot feed 7.5 billion people today, how can it feed nearly 10 billion people in 2050?

Why is domestic food waste the 2022 Innovation Challenge?

Why this challenge? There are lots of important reasons for focusing on reducing domestic food waste this year… here are a few big ones…
According to Project Drawdown, reducing food waste is the #1 personal action to reduce carbon emissions.
The Environmental Protection Agency reports that in Ireland we waste about 1 million tonnes of food each year – this includes valuable resources in land, water, energy, and fertiliser used in growing, processing, and transporting the food.
The United Nations estimates that eliminating only ¼ of the food presently wasted would be enough to end global hunger.

In summary, reducing food waste:

saves money
reduces hunger, and
protects the environment.

Who is eligible to get involved?

The invitation is open to ALL TU Dublin students – including full time and part time students and across ALL programmes including research degrees and apprenticeships.

Faculty and staff are welcome to join as mentors.

Prize Fund:

€2,000 Prize Fund.
Kindly sponsored by: www.workday.com

What is the format?

On 04 November 2022, TU Dublin students will come together to work in teams to generate and develop ideas that address the challenge of reducing household food waste.
All you need to do is to simply sign up to participate in the TU Dublin President’s Sustainability Innovation Challenge.
You can bring your own team to the hackathon, or you can join a team.
Don’t have a team? You can easily sign up as an individual and join a team. On the afternoon of 03 November 2022, the day before the main hackathon, students who have signed up as individuals will be invited to meet and be facilitated to form teams.

You don’t have to have ideas for the solution already but it is no problem if you do, and want to use the hackathon to build on your proposed solution. We don’t expect teams to come up with solutions that will solve the entire problem. As with most sustainability challenges, the overall solution for reducing and eliminating household food waste will be found in many small solutions and ideas – one of which might be yours!
Over the course of two days, you will be given direction on how to form your team, brainstorm ideas, and pitch your ideas with confidence. Advisors and mentors will be available throughout to help you and your team.
Towards the end of the day, our panel of judges will select from the best ideas proposed with the winning team or teams receiving a cash prize kindly sponsored by Workday. The total prize fund is €2,000.
All participants will receive a certificate of participation from TU Dublin GROWTHhub.
Food and beverages will be provided.

Key Dates & Schedule:

30 October 2022: Application closing date.
03 November 2022: Students who have signed up as individuals come together to form teams. Kick-off 2.00 pm.
04 November 2022: Hackathon Sprint launch with students brainstorming and developing their ideas followed by pitching them to a judging panel. Kick-off 9.00 am.

How do I sign up?

You can sign up as an individual or as a team to take part in the President’s Sustainability Innovation Challenge here.
Closing date for applications is 30 October 2022.
For more information, see: https://www.tudublin.ie/growthhub/hackathon
For further information check contact growthhub@tudublin.ie.

TU Dublin President's Sustainability Innovation Challenge