DigiBlue: Co-Creating Stories for Blue Citizenship
Our oceans and rivers shape our cultures, climate, and future—yet too many remain unaware of their value. This online hackathon invites changemakers to counteract ocean blindness by co-creating stories that inspire a sense of blue citizenship.
We're looking for bold, creative teams to craft compelling educational stories—visual, interactive, immersive, or multimedia—about aquatic ecosystems and blue economy themes. From climate change and biodiversity loss to maritime heritage and civic engagement—your digital stories can shift narratives and spark action.
Participants will explore and use AI tools, open data, and digital education platforms to create concepts or rapid prototypes. You don’t need to be a coder—we welcome educators, artists, writers, students, scientists, and designers.
The best ideas will receive mentoring and support to further develop their stories into scalable learning experiences that foster ocean literacy for all.
Let’s co-create stories that shift perceptions and inspire action.
Questions?
piret@bonolab.com
Who can join?
15 - 16 NOV 2025
Register by 12 NOVLanguage(s) of the hackathon
English
Online
from EstoniaOther
Challenge and goals
- Raise awareness about the interconnectedness of oceans, rivers, and human activity.
- Create engaging, educational digital stories that support ocean literacy.
- Spark cross-disciplinary collaboration between storytellers, educators, technologists, and water experts.
- Introduce and promote the use of AI tools and authoring platforms for digital education.
- Generate scalable prototypes or concepts that can be implemented in classrooms, museums, or community outreach.
- Identify and support the most promising solutions with expert guidance and development help post-hackathon.
Participants will walk away with increased skills in digital storytelling, exposure to AI tools, and a deeper understanding of blue economy topics. Winning teams will gain visibility, recognition, and the opportunity to further develop their ideas with our partner network.
Expectations and requirements for the solutions and participants
Form a team or join one during kickoff. Submit a digital story concept or prototype by the deadline. Your submission can be visual, interactive, immersive, or AI-generated. It must focus on ocean, water, or blue economy themes and use at least one digital tool or platform. All teams must join the final pitch event. No technical or coding background required.
Available Support
Participants get access to live inspiration sessions, mentoring, curated resources, and optional onboarding to AI and authoring tools. Our partners will be available throughout to guide storytelling development, content validation, and platform navigation. A helpdesk will run daily to support teams with tech or creative questions.
Schedule
This is an online hackathon with in-person locations where participants can join. The places where you can participate in person are Tejn (Denmark), Rødvig (Denmark), Gdynia (Poland), Malmö (Sweden) and Tallinn (Estonia). If you wish to hear more about the local hackathons, please write to piret@bonolab.com.
Online mentors support the online hackathon participants.
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16:00 CET, October 27, 2025
Pre-hackathon get-together
All participants are invited to meet and greet the hackathon organisers. The hackathon's purpose and requirements are presented, and there is an opportunity to ask questions. Opportunity to be matched with other participants without team members. -
14:00 CET, November 14, 2025 (Friday)
Mentor timeslots open
Teams can book time with the online mentors. In case of a high number of teams, one team can book the same mentor once. -
9:30 - 9:50 CET, November 15, 2025 (Saturday)
DigiBlue hackathon global kick-off
All teams participate in the kick-off activity, where the purpose and requirements of the hackathon are reiterated. -
10:00 - 15:00 CET, November 15, 2025 (Saturday)
Online mentors' sessions
All teams can book a maximum of a 20-minute feedback session with each mentor. -
15:30 - 16:30 CET, November 15, 2025 (Saturday)
Optional Q&A session
We are available for a chat for teams who need it. -
9:30 - 9:40 CET, November 16, 2025 (Sunday)
Global check in
All teams send a minimum of 1 team member to check in. Opportunity to ask questions and clarify final things. -
10:00 - 12:00 CET, November 16, 2025 (Sunday)
Online mentors' sessions
All teams can book a maximum of a 20-minute feedback session with each mentor. -
13:00 CET, November 16, 2025 (Sunday)
SUBMISSION DEADLINE
All submissions need to be done by 13:00 CET. Late submissions will not be accepted. -
15:30 - 16:00 CET, November 16, 2025 (Sunda)
Global celebration
All teams join online, and the winning teams are announced and awarded. Next steps are shared.
Mentors
Jamileh Javidpour
Marine Ecologist, University of Southern Denmark
Christine Nikander
Environmental Lawyer, Storyteller, Educator, Palsa & Pulk
James Akcroyd
Film Producer, CPH Film Agency
Louise Cox
Digital Learning Designer, Alrose Consulting
Hira Malik Wajahat
Sustainability expert, Communication and Pitching, Estonian Business Shool
Piret Liv Stern Dahl
General coordinator, digital tools for storytelling, BonoLab and Edu Tech Impact
Helen Orav-Kotta
Marine & freshwater sustainability (e.g., biodiversity, eutrophication, pollution), University of Tartu
Marie Helene Birk
Marine & freshwater sustainability (e.g., biodiversity, eutrophication, pollution), Civic education & youth engagement, ivandet (Tejn, on site hackathon)
Tove Holm
Digital storytelling & creative communication, Marine & freshwater sustainability (e.g., biodiversity, eutrophication, pollution), Civic education & youth engagement. SEA-EU at Nord University in Bodø, Norway
Débora Filipa Nobre Carmo
Marine & freshwater sustainability (e.g., biodiversity, eutrophication, pollution), Protect Baltic Project, Helcom
Anu Printsmann
Cultural heritage related to the Baltic region and beyond, Digital storytelling & creative communication, Civic education & youth engagement, Tallinn University
Elin McCallum
Civic education & youth engagement, Reviewing an overall plan for logic/flow, Bantani EntreComp community
Joel Lindholm
Marine & freshwater sustainability (e.g., biodiversity, eutrophication, pollution), Digital storytelling & creative communication, Civic education & youth engagement, Nature finance, regenerative business models, blue bioeconomy innovation, Under Ytan
Sakina Sarjan
Digital storytelling & creative communication, Civic education & youth engagement, Pop UnfoldPrizes
The best team receives a 700 EUR prize, and the runner-up gets 300 EUR.
We are working on adding additional prizes from sponsors and collaborators!