Climate Hackathon in Northern Japan

The U.S. Consulate General in Sapporo is committed to combatting the climate crisis and supporting sustainable energy adoption in Northern Japan. Realizing success in the battle against the climate crisis will require innovative approaches over the long term, it is essential for Japan’s youth and next-generation scientists, tech sector workers, entrepreneurs, and opinion leaders to develop a better understanding of the issues and start to workshop potential solutions. Northern Japan will play a significant role in whether Japan is able to achieve its ambitious climate change and decarbonization goals, and the prefectural government has made Zero Carbon Hokkaido a signature initiative – and youth involvement could help sustain momentum over time. The Consulate invites proposals from academic institutions, engineers, scientists, NGOs, and individuals or groups at tech companies to execute a tech camp or hackathon on climate change preferably in 2022. The program can be online, in-person, or hybrid depending on the public health environment. The program is expected to be interactive under any type of formats above, and it will target university students in Northern Japan. Ideally, it will bring approximately 30 to 50 students, along with several mentors, to work together during the program. Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals following the attached program and using the program template provided to demonstrate the organizational capacity and budget estimates to support online and/or in-person program empowering youth in northern Japan to develop innovative ideas and skills for combatting climate change. The applicants are responsible for identifying and arranging the venue (regardless of in-person or virtual) as well as recruitment of participants and mentors/lecturers of the program as well. Encouraging female students or considering gender balance for the participants in the program will be an asset. Participants and Audiences: Expected participants will be university (and/or high school) students at schools in northern Japan (defined as Hokkaido, Aomori, Akita, Iwate, and/or Miyagi Prefectures).