Within the 2020 Italian Sustainable Development Festival, the University Network for Sustainable Development (RUS) and the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS), in collaboration with the Commissioner General's Office for Italy's participation in Expo 2020 Dubai, organized from Saturday the 3rd to Monday the 5th of October 2020, an international hackathon entitled "UniSustainathon: sustainability as an opportunity. Universities for Expo Dubai 2020", with the aim of encouraging students from all over the world to reflect on sustainable and resilient solutions, paying particular attention to the topics of interest of the next Universal Exposition (which will be inaugurated in October 2021 in the United Arab Emirates), with a complex, inter and transdisciplinary perspective.  

The commitment of Universities to sustainability becomes particularly effective when teaching and research, as well as the sustainable management of university structures, are accompanied by an effective educational and training choice that answers to the real needs of the territory.This awareness is at the basis of the University Network for Sustainable Development (RUS), an unprecedented experience of coordination and sharing among all Italian universities engaged in the issues of environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Among the main purposes of the RUS is the dissemination of culture and good sustainability practices, both inside and outside the Universities, sharing skills and experiences, in order to amplify both the positive impacts of the actions implemented by the individual universities and the promotion of the SDGs - Sustainable Development Goals - to help in their achievement.

Prize

The winners will automatically be candidates for the contest “RUS challenge on 2030 Agenda”, organized by the Network of Universities for Sustainable Development which aims to give visibility to the best project during the EXPO 2020 Dubai universal exhibition according to the guidelines of the Commissioner General's Office for Italy's participation in Expo 2020 Dubai.

Thanks to the collaboration with SDSN Mediterranean, all members of the winning team will be rewarded with voucher codes to pursue a Verified Certificate in an SDG Academy online course. The SDG Academy is the flagship education initiative of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative for the United Nations. Its courses are hosted on edX, one of the world's largest online learning platforms. Learners on the Verified Track receive an edX Verified Certificate upon successful passing the course. (See each course's grading policy for more details.). Click here to browse the courses offered by the SDG Academy.

Read the classification

Discover the 10 finalist projects:

MibHack20; Dimmidipiù; Romathon; Good Fellas; EcoSPACE; Adaptable Campus; Arema; ComUni; Spill Out; Y(our) voice, Y(our) future