From April 17th to 19th, 2025, the city of Évora hosted the vibrant and multidisciplinary INSECTOPIA Festival, a flagship event within the EU GREEN Alliance that brought together students, researchers, artists, and innovators from across Europe to explore the essential role of insects in ecosystems and our daily lives. As a key feature of the festival, the INSECTOPIA Hackathon challenged participants to propose creative, sustainable, and feasible projects that promote insect biodiversity and contribute to healthier ecosystems through cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Organized by the University of Évora and supported by EU GREEN’s educational and research initiatives, the Hackathon welcomed nine finalist teams from different partner universities. Over two days of intense teamwork and mentoring, participants developed and pitched their projects to a jury composed of experts from academia, entrepreneurship, and the arts.
The winning project was “Bee Friendly,” a proposal by students from Atlantic Technological University and University of Évora that aims to tackle declining bee populations through the design of pollinator-friendly spaces in urban settings, supported by educational campaigns and community engagement. The jury highlighted the project’s feasibility, societal relevance, and potential for implementation across different campuses of the alliance.
Two additional projects received honorable mentions: “Urban Eden,” a concept for creating small-scale vertical gardens that support urban insect biodiversity while promoting citizen awareness; and “BugPlay,” an educational board game designed to teach children about insect species and the ecological roles they play.
Beyond the Hackathon, INSECTOPIA included performances, scientific lectures, visual exhibitions, and a wide range of public engagement activities aimed at celebrating biodiversity through the lens of insect life. The event offered a platform for dialogue between science and the arts, while underscoring the EU GREEN Alliance’s mission to foster sustainability, interdisciplinarity, and citizen involvement.
The success of the INSECTOPIA Hackathon and Festival reaffirms EU GREEN’s commitment to promoting creative solutions to sustainability challenges and empowering students to become changemakers in their regions and beyond.
PHOTO GALLERY
