The Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII) and the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI) are pleased to invite participation in an innovation data hackathon taking place from 11-13 September 2018.

Express interest now. Registrations close Friday 31 August 2018.

The event will be hosted as part of the 2018 South African Innovation Summit at the Cape Town Stadium.

Our focus? Developing brand new experiences for users of business innovation survey data within the National Science, Technology and Innovation Information Portal (NSTIIP).

“By working in new and creative ways with user communities such as firms, policy makers, media houses, and researchers, this effort represents a significant opportunity for CeSTII to widen participation in and deepen knowledge of the country’s innovation data, which is vital to a more innovative South Africa,” says CeSTII director, Dr Glenda Kruss.

Join a hackathon team, or join the audience

There are limited spaces for individuals to join a multidisciplinary hackathon team of six people per team, and to take part in a facilitated process including a technical briefing, hands-on team mentorship by experts, and a final pitch and judge session.

“NACI will incorporate the inputs from the multidisciplinary teams that are participating at this hackathon event to improve the user experiences of the NSTIIP and also for its upscaling,” says Dr Petrus Letaba, the NSTIIP’s project manager.

Download 2-page hackathon challenge and programme pdf

But there is also an option for interested parties to join the hackathon audience as ‘critical friends’.

“We know that businesses, industry associations, government policymakers, research institutions and the media all have a stake in a strong national innovation dataset,” says hackathon lead facilitator, Dr Pieter Van Heyningen.

“So we are also looking for a strong cohort of people from these groups to help us guide the teams, either as active mentors or as part of our hackathon audience for the opening and closing sessions.”

Says Van Heyningen: “This hackathon is in fact a rare chance for researchers, innovation managers, journalists, creatives, and web developers from diverse sectoral backgrounds, working in a fully catered for space, to rapidly expand their networks and collaboration capacities, while making innovation data work better for the user groups that need it most.”

Hackathon contacts

For more information or if you have questions, write to:

• Gerard Ralphs, Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators, Human Sciences Research Council gralphs[at]hsrc.ac.za, 021 466 8000
• Dr Petrus Letaba, National Advisory Council on Innovation, petrus.letaba[at]dst.gov.za
• Dr Pieter Van Heyningen, SustNet, pieter@sustnet.com