The hackathon of coal mining cities took place online on December 3-10, 2021. The event is part of a UNDP project "The Butterfly Effect: Piloting Research to Support the Launch of Transformation of Ukraine's Coal Mining Regions".

The event was organized by the SYNCHRO SPACE team together with the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE), with support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ukraine and in collaboration with the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development, Ministry of Energy, Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories та Ministry of Digital Transformation, city administrations of Chervonohrad і Myrnohrad, and Lviv and Donetsk Regional State Administrations.

This year's event brought together authorities and international organizations, teams of scientists, teachers from leading universities, businesses, startups, and local NGOs from around Ukraine and the world.

During the opening of the Hackathon on December 3, 2021, Alisa Bankovska, founder of SYNCHRO SPACE, UNDP System Transformation Coordinator, spoke about the "butterfly effect" in the transformation of Ukrainian cities.

The transformation of the pilot cities of Chervonohrad and Myrnohrad can be an example of the "butterfly effect" when minor changes turn coal mono-cities into prosperous regional players. Many countries have already gone the way of giving up coal. Thanks to innovative tools, we can also effectively stop using coal. One of the tools is the Hackathon. And because this measure is supported at various levels, and the results are ready to implement, its effectiveness is dramatically increased.

The key stakeholders of the project also shared recommendations on promising solutions to the hackathon participants.

The opening ended with a presentation of the results of the UNDP project "The Butterfly Effect: Piloting Research to Support the Launch of Transformation of Ukraine's Coal Mining Regions" by Oksana Udovik, the Head of UNDP Acceleration Lab, and Alissa Ban'kovska.

On December 4, the event's participants were inspired by the public lecture program and started working on projects. Within the framework of the Hackathon, 20 strong teams were selected. They actively developed solutions for the transformation of Myrnograd and Chervonohrad during the next week. Three group mentoring sessions and more than 18 individual consultations with Ukrainian and international experts took place during the three-day intensive project work.

The five most promising projects were selected according to the voting results.

The winners are:

The winning projects will be able to pilot their solutions in Myrnohrad and Chervonohrad with the support of various stakeholders, as well as the opportunity to scale in other coal-mining cities.

The rest of the projects that were not among the five winners were also of interest to the jury and have prospects for further development.

• "Vugleinnovatsiya" – a project uses low-potential energy sources (including mine water, ventilation air, heaps) of mine "5/6" for heat supply.
• Lviv/ANILSAM project 1 – a project of the coal-chemical complex "THERMOTEC POWER", which is one of the world's leading gasification technologies.
• Myrnohrad Innovation Hub – the creation of a platform focused on the provision of social services by public associations, searching and co-financing local small and medium-sized businesses.
• Green Power Hybrid – underground storage facilities for hydroelectric power plants as a way to use mine water in abandoned coal mines.
• Chervonohrad 2.0 – project solves the city's infrastructural problems by creating profile instructions.
• Tehmet – physico-chemical treatment of highly saline mine waters, which reduces treatment costs and eliminates radionuclides.
• Lviv/ANILSAM project 2 – arrangement of a local solar power plant for energy production and increasing the energy independence of the utility facility in order to provide jobs and reduce the cost of electricity.
• Bioplato – the use of bio plates for the purification of water contaminated by mine emissions.
• SYNAPS – the project of the energy center for Chervonohrad.

On December 16, with the assistance of the Deputy Group on Fair Transformation of Coal Regions headed by Yuriy Kamelchuk and Victoria Hryb, at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine summed up the Hackathon in the format of DEMO DAY: Transformation Projects for Coal Regions - INNOVATION, ECOLOGY.

At the same time, a multi-illustrated research book by Valentyna Lazebnik “The European Footprint in the Formation of Ukrainian Industry. The middle of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century.”

This book is created to promote the idea of ​​preserving the industrial heritage in Ukraine: the creation of a network of technical museums based on industrial enterprises subject to closure with the prospect of their inclusion in the European Industrial Heritage Route (ERIH).
The event was organized by the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs together with the Hub of Innovation for Cities SYNCHRO SPACE, as well as the publishing house "Summit Book".

Participants of the event were People's Deputies of Ukraine, representatives of Ministries and departments, regional state administrations of coal regions, city administrations of coal cities, embassies in Ukraine (Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, USA, UK, Switzerland), international organizations (UNDP, USAID, GIZ, EU), WNISEF), higher education institutions, museums, and the public.

SYNCHRO SPACE is a unique platform for synchronizing the activities of different specialists in order to jointly develop and implement innovative projects in the cities of Ukraine and the world.

By working with city halls, communities, scientists, startups, professionals, entrepreneurs, Ukrainian and international experts, we help address pressing urban challenges through innovative projects.

Join the community of smart city creators. Because with us are those who create the cities of the future!