Introduction

In March 2020, seven civil society organisations joined forces with the German government to launch the #WirVsVirus initiative. The aim of the initiative is to develop and implement solutions to the challenges of the corona crisis.

In order to be able to collect cross-sectoral solutions, the initiators organised the #WirVsVirus hackathon. It offered an organizational and technical framework to work together on functioning prototypes and new solutions for socially relevant questions regarding COVID-19.

Facts and figures of the #WirVsVirus-Hackathon:

• 42,968 registrations
• 2,922 Mentors
• 1,924 Challenges
• 28,000 participants
• 1,500 solutions
• 20 winning teams
• 48 hours

The #WirVsVirus hackathon was the starting point of a joint commitment to a long-term solution to the challenges of COVID-19. KfW Stiftung is one of several funding partners of the implementation programme, which aims to ensure the rapid validation and implementation of the solutions.