Unus Terra wins top prize at EIT Digital Data against COVID-19 Deephack

Unus Terra, a serious game against COVID-19 that stimulates behavioural changes in the real world by leveraging persuasive design principles, is the winner of DATA against COVID-19, the online DeepHack organised by EIT Digital to develop digital solutions for epidemic and pandemic lifecycle management.

Second prize went to "Service coverage and capacity management", a tool to visualize and access ICU beds, and the third prize went to "AI-APP for COVID-19", an app to assess the risk of viruses spreading at events.

Committed teams, strong proposals, and hard work during the weekend made the well-organised online event an all-round success.

The EIT Digital DeepHack, powered by Ultrahack, ran nonstop from 1 to 3 May. In the final pitching sessions, 20 teams, composed of 73 entrepreneurs, innovators and students coming from 13 countries, competed for a total prize of EUR 15 000, and for the opportunity to be selected for a follow-up EIT Digital activity to fully develop and deploy their solution.

The winning team, Unus Terra, based in Finland, took home EUR 7 000, while for the second and third places, EUR 5 000 and EUR 3 000 were awarded, respectively.

Second prize was awarded to a team from Germany, Brazil, France, Italy and the Czech Republic, composed of members of the Targomo startup, for their "Service coverage and capacity management" solution. The tool visualizes ICU beds service coverage and accessibility maps in a specific area, and makes it possible to identify risk areas, or target certain demographics during the pandemic.

Third place went to the UK-based team behind "AI-App for COVID-19", an app which uses artificial intelligence to help managers and insurers assess the risk of viruses spreading at planned events.

The high-profile jury for the DeepHack included Jean-David Malo, Director of the European Innovation Council (EIC), Linnar Viik, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of EIT Digital, Lucia Chierchia, Managing Partner at Gellify, Maria Luisa García García, President of The Andalusian Investors Network, Wim De Waele, General Manager at The Beacon and Willem Jonker, CEO of EIT Digital. The jury selected the best solutions after a pitching session, based on their impact, scalability and business model.

This is by far not the first DeepHack that we have organised, but it was the first fully online DeepHack, and it was a tremendous success. We received 312 registrations totalling 145 projects. We selected 20 projects for the final event, and we have three strong winners. Congratulations to all participating teams for their commitment and the high quality of their proposals. We look forward to supporting several of them during the rest of 2020 to fully develop and deploy their solutions

Chahab Nastar, EIT Digital's Chief Innovation Officer