Smart Attica EDIH was invited to participate in the Innovation Workshop “Integrating the tools of Hackathons into the innovation ecosystem of local government and improving the capacity of public bodies to design innovation proposals for the National Action Plan for Innovation in the Public Sector‘. The two-day event was held on Thursday and Friday 18 and 19 April 2024, at the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Crete and was organised by the Department of Innovation and Best Practices of the Ministry of the Interior in collaboration with the National Centre of Public Administration and Local Government (EKDDA).
The workshop brought together experts from public administration, academia and the innovation ecosystem to collaborate on developing materials, that will be used for the integration of Hackathons into the Greek public administration and will be disseminated with the support of the Ministry of Interior in the Regions of the country.
Denia Kanellopoulou, NCSR Demokritos presented at the workshop the strategic and operational adoption of Hackathons within public bodies, addressing key questions for successful implementation. Some of these questions included:
● What are the ways of dissemination/adoption of Hackathons in public bodies?
● How can Hackathons be linked to the Research and Innovation Strategy and Action Plans in a Region?
● What are the alternative forms of Hackathons, e.g. design sprints and what are their advantages/disadvantages compared to the creation of a Hackathon?
● What role do Hackathons play in formulating proposals for prototypes?
● How are these proposals adopted by public bodies?