BBT Atlantic Hackathon x Ocean Hackathon®
The third edition of the Atlantic Hackathon, held as a local edition of Ocean Hackathon® 2025, successfully took place from 17th to 19th October 2025 in Peniche, Portugal. Participants were hosted by the Escola Superior de Turismo e Tecnologia do Mar, located on Portugal’s inspiring Silver Coast, creating the perfect environment for collaboration and innovation.
Co-organized by Blue Bio Techpreneurs, the Polytechnic University of Leiria, and Smart Ocean, the event brought together talent from 7 countries and 13 different nationalities. Over the weekend, participants tackled real-world challenges in the blue bioeconomy, demonstrating creativity, motivation, and passion for sustainable use of marine resources.
The hackathon served as a dynamic bridge between industry and academia, fostering solutions that advance the sustainable management and innovation of ocean resources.
Explore the Challenges:
1. Sustainable upcycling of aquaculture nutrients into circular bio-based solutions
AmpliAqua’s IMTA system produces nutrient-rich effluents that are currently underused. The challenge is to create a digital tool that matches effluent nutrient profiles with crop requirements (e.g., basil, arugula), helping transform aquaculture byproducts into valuable agricultural inputs. Participants will prototype an algorithm or dashboard, assess environmental benefits, and propose a scalable business model.
2. Detecting Microplastics in Food and Water: A Smart Monitoring Challenge
Microplastics in food and water pose risks to health, safety, and the environment, but current detection methods are costly and limited. This challenge seeks a digital or data-driven prototype to support microplastic detection and monitoring, with a focus on food and agricultural water in regions like the Azores. Possible outputs include a workflow-mapping tool, simulated data models, or a simple dashboard to visualize and track results — serving as a first step toward broader lab implementation.
3. Tracking Marine Biodiversity: An Interactive Genomics Explorer for Europe
Create an interactive web tool that visualizes marine species, biodiversity trends, and environmental data across Europe using EMO BON, EMODnet, and Global Fishing Watch. The prototype will allow users to filter by species, time, or region, identify biodiversity hotspots, and explore correlations with human activity and environmental conditions.
4. From Sea to Dish – Intelligent Traceability for a Sustainable Ocean
Design an intuitive digital prototype (app, website, QR code system, or similar) that reveals the full journey of seafood from harvest to table. The tool should transform complex traceability data into clear visualizations, including sustainability metrics, social responsibility indicators, and nutritional information, making seafood provenance accessible to consumers and supply chain actors.
5. Let’s improve aquaculture in Portugal?
Develop an AI-powered mobile app that provides real-time monitoring and early warnings of sea temperature changes and harmful algal blooms, helping bivalve aquaculture producers respond proactively to biotoxin risks. The tool should be accessible, user-friendly, and support sustainable aquaculture practices in regions like Portugal.
Meet the Winners!
🥇 The winners – CircularPonic
Sustainable upcycling of aquaculture nutrients into circular bio-based solutions. Juliana Leite, Adriano Arruda, Gustavo Figueiras, Vinicius Virtuoso, Beatriz Lopes
Challenge owner Paulo Frias
🥈 Second place goes to OceanTrace
From Sea to Dish – Intelligent Traceability for a Sustainable Ocean. Lina Dahl, Hendrick Scheifer, Vinicius Sasaki Takemoto, Marcio Gabriel de Campos, Simão Lima
Challenge owner João Reis, B2E Blue Bioeconomy CoLAB
🥉 Third place sEaDNA
Tracking Marine Biodiversity: An Interactive Genomics Explorer for Europe. Sabira Ayesha Bokhari, Marielle Frank, Zane Estere Gruntmane, Alexei Karavan, Marco Simões
Challenge owner Daniel Kumazawa Morais, EMBRC – European Marine Biological Resource Centre
Congratulations also to the other two teams and their mentors!
Hackathons are not just about winning. They’re about connection, creativity, knowledge-sharing, and the innovative spirit that came alive over these last few days.
