DataSpaceHackathon

New Business from Food Chain Data and Fair Data Economy

Kädet täynnä multaa, taustalla tietokonegrafiikkaa

In the fall of 2022, DataSpace Europe oy has introduced the first domestic data intermediary service, Tritom, to the market, which connects actors in the Finnish food system, from agriculture to the food industry, retail trade and the consumer, and enables the creation of new services that utilize communal data and serve the entire food system. The goal of DataSpaceHackathon is to activate potential partners to develop new business models, applications and methods of utilization in order to utilize the communal data provided by the data intermediary service that connects food system operators. The goal is to utilize data in accordance with the principles of a fair data economy in a way that produces new added value for the operators connected to the data intermediary service.

What is it about

Huge amounts of data are produced and have been produced on farms for a long time. It can be obtained e.g. from sensors attached to work machines, milking robots, field images taken by satellites, and data recorded by the farmer himself in the software. Data collected from farms would therefore be available in abundance, but its utilization has remained half-way. It is already possible to use data to some extent at farm level to develop internal processes, but most of the time it has required various intermediate steps and is therefore difficult and time-consuming.

One of the biggest obstacles to the efficient use of data has been the mutual incompatibility of systems that generate and process data. It has been very difficult or even impossible to combine data from one system with data from another system or transfer it between software. The agricultural data space is revolutionizing the way farmers benefit from the data they produce. The use of data on farms will become significantly more efficient when the barriers between systems are removed and the uncomplicated transfer and combination of data between different devices and software becomes possible. It saves the farmer's time, makes decision-making more efficient, and thereby also improves the profitability of the business. The data obtained from the farms also offers an opportunity to actually verify what kind of emissions are generated from food production. By combining data from different sources, for example, the carbon footprint of the farm's products can be calculated and, thanks to that, the product can get added value.

Thanks to the common rules of the game in the data space, the farmer can decide to whom and for what purpose he or she wants to license the use of his data. The common rules of the game also guarantee that no sensitive information is leaked from the farm for the wrong purposes. In addition, the data space offers new and old players in the agricultural sector the opportunity to create new innovations and services around the use of data to meet the needs of farmers (REF: Ala-Kleemola, K. 2022: Data-avaruus mullistaa viljelijöiden mahdollisuudet hyötyä tilalla tuotetusta datasta). 

Tritom data intermediary service

DataSpace Europe oy has founded Finland's first data intermediary service supporting data spaces, called Tritom. In the first phase, Tritom connects food industry operators from farms to the food industry and from retail to consumers. Tritom changes the way the food industry operates: It enables, for example, the verification of the origin of certain food packaging and the calculation of the carbon footprint based on real data - There is no longer a need to estimate or calculate the carbon footprint based on industry averages.

Tritom is a data intermediary service that enables fair and communal data sharing. From the point-to-point connections of individual operators, we are moving to a data space, where the same data can be used by everyone with a permit. Data is always safe and Tritom does not store data, it only transmits it in different formats.

The data to be used already exists, for example, in agricultural planning software for farms (FMIS), machines, accounting offices, authorities, research institutes, map data, mills, dairies, slaughterhouses, shops and restaurants. Community sharing of this data enables the development of completely new types of services and transactions.

The construction of data spaces for different sectors and in different countries are projects regulated and supported by the EU, and data space for the food industry has already been prepared for years in several different projects. Tritom opens immediately for use by service providers. Later, DataSpace Europe oy can establish data intermediary services supporting data spaces for other industries and other EU countries. DataSpace Europe oy follows Sitra's principles of a fair data economy and the European data management regulation. A fair data economy means e.g. that all actors in the data space have the same rights and obligations. The benefit from the data is also fairly shared among the producers of the data. For example, the added value obtained from food verified by its origin, healthiness, environmental friendliness or ethics also belongs to the farmer.

#dataeconomy #fairdata #fairdataeconomy #foodchain #foodsystem #footprint #traceability #sustainability #carbonfootprint

Welcome to solve the challenge!

What DataSpaceHackathon?

BioPaavo and Kasvu Open, in cooperation with DataSpace Europe oy, are opening a Hackathon, the aim of which is to activate potential partners to develop new business models, applications and ways of utilization in order to utilize the communal data offered by the data intermediary service that connects food system operators. The goal is to utilize data in accordance with the principles of a fair data economy in a way that produces new added value for the operators connected to the data intermediary service. DataSpace Europe oy offers for the winning team(s) cooperation for further development of ideas and new services, marketing support to DataSpace Europe’s own customers and networks, and free access to the Tritom data transmission service for 1 year.

DataSpace Europe oy is building a European fair data economy revolution for a more humane, safer and more equal tomorrow. DataSpace Europe oy improves the possibility of companies and organizations to utilize the world's fastest renewable raw material: data. The financiers of DataSpace Europe oy are MTK ry, Cinia oy, JSK Kiinteistöt oy, Tikura Ventures oy and Climate Fund.

Participants

Hackathon is open to all interested parties: companies, research institutes, educational organizations and students, as well as other actors. Your team can be made up of representatives of your organization, or you can form a team that crosses organizational boundaries for this very challenge! Participation in the hackathon is free of charge.

More detailed rules for participation ›   

Jury

The Hackathon jury consists of representatives from DataSpace Europe oy, BioPaavo by JAMK, and representatives from 1-2 other expert organizations.

Why participate?

  • You get to “acid test” your idea and receive instant feedback from a potential customer
  • Find new business opportunities: You have the opportunity to build long-term business cooperation, get to pilot your solution and, if needed, to do product development cooperation with the sponsoring company.
  • As a finalist, you will have access to the experts’ know-how and professional mentoring free-of-charge
  • Get to network with other participants and experts

Timetable

  • Publication of the challenge on Thursday, January 12, 2023, at 12 noon – 2 pm EET (UTC+2) in webinar: https://www.jamk.fi/fi/tapahtuma/datatalous-tulee-maatiloille (webinar in Finnish)
  • Submit your application describing briefly your idea and team by February 8th, 2023 at the latest. In the preliminary proposal, we ask you to briefly describe your idea and the capability and the know-how of the team with which you will be involved in the challenge. 
  • The ideas and teams selected for the follow-up will be published by February 10th, 2023.
  • The Kick-Off event will be held on Thursday February 16th, 2023, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. EET when the participating teams will meet each other and representatives of the sponsoring company. At the kick-off event, representatives of DataSpace Finland Oy will tell the participating teams more about the challenge. The Kick-Off event will be held online (Zoom).
  • Hackathon Day is organized on Tuesday March 28th, 2023 (full day event). At the end of the day the winning team(s) will be selected. You can participate in the Hackathon event either in BioPaavo in Saarijärvi or online.

Sign up!

Registration has ended.

For more information:

Annimari Lehtomäki, Chief Specialist, BioEconomy Business Accelerator BioPaavo by JAMK: firstname.lastname@jamk.fi, tel. +358 50 464 2563
Jyrki Hyyrönmäki, Chief Product Officer, DataSpace Europe oy: firstname.lastname@dataspace.fi, tel. +358 40 590 2905

Organizer

BioPaavo by JAMK is a Bioeconomy Business Accelerator that aims to create new business and globally significant solutions to combat climate change in the international bioeconomy environment. BioPaavo's key tasks are to develop bioeconomy business and create sustainable business based on new innovations, utilizing new technologies and digitalization, developing abilities and know-how, and building business networks and ecosystems. 

In collaboration with

Kasvu Open is the largest and most effective business sparring program in Finland. Kasvu Open provides free-of-charge services for Finnish SMEs targeting to level-up their business. Kasvu Open utilizes a method called Growth Runway, which was originally developed in Jyväskylä University by Mr. Marko Seppä, Professor of growth business operations and his team.

The Bioeconomy Business Accelerator for Saarijärvi project is implemented by the Bioeconomy Institute of Jamk University of Applied Sciences and is funded by the Regional Council of Central Finland with the support of the European Regional Development Fund, Sitra and the City of Saarijärvi.

Download the DataSpaceHackathon Invitation as pdf file ›