SOILTATHONS

Impact Pathways

What Is the EU Agri-Hackathon?

An official European Commission initiative designed to harness the power of digital innovation in service of Europe's farming communities. It brings together farmers, data analysts, developers, researchers, entrepreneurs, students, agri-food professionals, and policy experts to build practical digital tools that address real agricultural challenges.

The event centres on three interconnected challenges — all united by a shared ambition: simplification. Europe's farmers are navigating growing layers of administrative complexity, data management demands, and information requirements across the food chain. The Hackathon is an invitation to change that.

Challenge 1 — Less Time on Forms, More Time on Farms Develop digital tools that reduce administrative burden and give farmers back their time, their clarity, and their sense of control.

Challenge 2 — Connecting Data for Smarter Fields Create solutions that help farmers better manage, interpret, and act on the data their land and operations generate every day.

Challenge 3 — Data Flow, Collaboration Powered Build pathways that simplify how farmers share information and collaborate with partners across the agri-food value chain.

Applications are open now. The submission deadline is 31 August 2026.

For decades, rural communities have been generating the knowledge that policy struggles to catch up with. They have understood before the data confirmed it that healthy soil means healthy food, healthy communities, and healthy economies. They have known that simplifying the relationship between farmers and institutions is not an administrative convenience — it is a question of dignity and viability.

The EU Agri-Hackathon is an invitation to bring that knowledge into the room where digital solutions are being built. The Soilathon is how Sustainagro answers that invitation — together, across borders, and from the ground up.

Join us.

Register for the EU Agri-Hackathon | Contact Sustainagro to Join the MAP Soilathon Cohort

What is the Soil Innovation Partnership?

SIP mobilizes a resilient knowledge and funding eco-system to drive science into impact through validation, innovation, and investment that will operate at least until 2040.

Their mission is to unlock the power of healthy soils to restore balance between society, nature, and economy—building a resilient future from the ground up.

From the Soil Up — Innovating for Europe's Agricultural Future

Healthy soil is not a backdrop. It is the foundation of everything we grow, eat, build, and sustain. At Sustainagro, soil health has always been at the centre of how we think about rural futures — through our SoilTalks dialogue series, our Fifth Helix methodology, and our commitment to co-creating knowledge across science, practice, policy, and community. Now, we are taking that commitment into a new arena.

The Soilathon is Sustainagro's collective response to the EU Agri-Hackathon — Europe's first digital innovation challenge dedicated entirely to the future of agriculture. And we are inviting every member of the Sustainagro MAP to join us.

Why Sustainagro MAP Members Belong Here

The EU Agri-Hackathon was designed for exactly the kinds of people and perspectives that make up our MAP community — practitioners who understand rural realities, researchers who translate evidence into action, entrepreneurs who see opportunity where others see complexity, and advocates who know that the future of farming depends on smarter, more connected systems.

Within Sustainagro's Fifth Helix framework, the natural environment — our soils, our landscapes, our ecosystems — is not a passive resource but an active co-creator of conditions for innovation. This is precisely what the EU Agri-Hackathon is asking participants to honour: not to build digital tools about farming, but to build tools that genuinely serve the living, breathing work of people who farm.

Our MAP spans rural territories across Europe. We carry local knowledge, cross-border perspective, and a deep fluency in the intersection of soil health, food systems, economic resilience, and community life. That is rare. That is needed. And that is exactly what this challenge is calling for.

The Soilathon: Our Shared Innovation Partnership

The Soilathon is a Sustainagro SIP — a Shared Innovation Partnership that mobilises MAP members to participate in the EU Agri-Hackathon not as isolated individuals, but as a coordinated, cross-disciplinary community.

Whether you come as a team or as an individual, whether your strength is in agronomy or software, policy or storytelling, data science or field-level farming experience — there is a role for you in the Soilathon.

Through this initiative, Sustainagro will:

• Connect MAP members with complementary skills to form strong, multi-actor teams ahead of the October event

• Support participants with shared knowledge resources rooted in our SoilTalks work and Living Lab experience

• Amplify rural voices and place-based perspectives within what could otherwise become a purely tech-driven conversation

• Document and share outcomes from MAP-linked teams as part of our broader Rural Knowledge Exchange

The Soilathon is not just about winning a hackathon. It is about bringing the depth of what Ruralities know — about soil, about community, about resilience — into the spaces where Europe's agricultural future is being designed.

How to Get Involved

Step 1 — Register for the EU Agri-Hackathon Applications are open until 31 August 2026 at 12:00. Register directly via the European Commission portal and select your challenge.

Step 2 — Join the Sustainagro Soilathon Network Let us know you are participating by contacting us at info@sustainagro.net. We will connect you with other MAP members, share preparatory resources, and build our collective presence at the event.

Step 3 — Co-Create and Compete Participate in the EU Agri-Hackathon on 16–18 October 2026 as part of the Sustainagro MAP cohort — supported, connected, and rooted in the shared values of our Ruralities Living Lab.