Balkathon is an online, regional competition that invites interested young people, start-ups, entrepreneurs, students, digital innovation hubs, scientific parks, universities, SMEs, etc. from all Western Balkan economies to propose and develop innovative digital solutions as a response to the challenges of our day-to-day life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Applications for this year’s Balkathon are open from 21 May to 5 July 2024.
Balkathon 5.0 is open for teams composed of participants coming from Western Balkan economies. Teams are encouraged to include amongst their members qualified individuals including students, legal entity including start-up; non-governmental and educational institutions.
You can apply by filling out an online application form and uploading the necessary documents. Before filling out the application form please read the Balkathon Guidelines carefully in order to prepare all needed information and documents.
No, only teams are eligible to participate in this competition. Please read section 1.4. of the Balkathon Guidelines.
For the selected participants/finalists, the competition will start early September 2024.
Mentoring sessions will be held in early September 2024.
The mentors are experienced experts from the region, with expertise in the topics of the competition.
Six winning teams will win 7.000 euro, one team per Western Balkan economy. RCC will provide two additional special recognition awards to the best ranked qualified high school teams in the amount of 4,000€ each. RCC reserves the right to award more than two awards, depending on the quality of the ideas received.
All information is available in the Balkathon Guidelines. You can also contact the organiser via the contact form or email contact.balkathon@rcc.int.
There is a list of eligibility criteria, and it is published on the Balkathon page.
If you are not the winning team, or member of any of the winnig teams, from any of the previous competitions ogranised by RCC, you can apply to Balkathon 5.0.
All registered teams which entered the finals will choose a mentor based on the following:
- All participants will get the list with mentors and time slots, and they will choose the timing of the mentoring session.
- In case the participants are not sure which mentor to choose, the organiser will propose a suitable mentor.
All sessions will be held online, via Zoom platform according to a prearranged schedule.
Presentation of the idea is not needed to applying to the competition, but you can share it if it will help in explaining the idea. However, the registered teams which entered the second phase will be required to submit a video pitch of the idea/solution together with a Submission Form that will be provided in advance. All documents and the presentation have to be in English.
Idea/solution that has been implemented, commercially used, published, or promoted will not be accepted.
If you are offering a new service then your idea is eligible.
To apply for Balkathon competition you will have to prepare a Concept Note (please download the document from the Balkathon webpage) where you can explain your idea/solution (purpose, structure, implementation, etc.), and it does not have to be described in technical detail. You do not have to have a complete development plan to apply to the competition, but in case you will be in the second phase, you will have to work on it with mentors.
Both proposals are acceptable.
To apply to Balkathon 5.0, we do not need specific technical details, just to understand the concept of the idea, focus, target groups, and benefits for the region. The better and more clearly you explain the idea, the better its essence will be understood.
No, there is no advantage. This information that you will provide when applying is needed so that you can get suitable mentoring support.
In case you copy the existing solutions, you will be disqualified. In case your solution is similar to the existing ones, but not the same, you will not be disqualified.
About the implementation, you start with one economy and continue to include others. The implementation does not need to start in all economies at the same time.
All obligations will be defined by the Agreement/Statement between the RCC and the winner.
No, there are no such restrictions on spending the funds. The funds will be used for the development of the solution.
No, the winning prize is 7.000 euros, and there is no possibility of getting a higher amount.
Yes, each solution developed under this competition will be obliged to use RCC and European Union logos.
The promotion will be mutual, the organisers will also promote the winning solutions.
You can apply to Balkathon 5.0 only as a team. The maximum number of team members is 7.