The 2026 All-Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Alliance (AAORIA) Forum is hosted by the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) and SENAI CIMATEC on 15-16 April in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, bringing together representatives from across the Atlantic basin. The event welcomes AAORIA Partners and the wider All-Atlantic community.
In a significant evolution of the Alliance’s capacity-building efforts, the first All-Atlantic Intergenerational Hackathon will take place under the umbrella of the Blue Intergenerational Programme on 13-14 April, as a Forum side event. This Hackathon will transform two years of All-Atlantic Intergenerational Dialogues (2024 and 2025) into concrete, actionable solutions. Organised by the OKEANO Coordination and Support Action (CSA), in collaboration with Sigi Gruber, this event represents the next chapter in AAORIA’s commitment to intergenerational knowledge transfer, collaboration and early-career empowerment and leadership.
Building on proven foundations
The Intergenerational Hackathon builds directly upon the successes of the 2024 and 2025 Intergenerational Dialogue sessions. In 2024, over 30 Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs) in Ottawa delivered six briefs to the AAORIA High Level Board, addressing key challenges across AAORIA’s priority areas of action. In 2025, the programme expanded in Brussels to encompass all priorities from the 2022 All-Atlantic Declaration, with around 50 ECOPs developing comprehensive recommendations to decision-makers.
The Hackathon takes this work further by moving from recommendations to developing actionable prototypes and other concrete applications. At the 2026 Intergenerational Hackathon, 67 ECOPs coached by Late-Career Ocean Professionals (LCOPs) will spend 24 intensive hours developing such demonstrable solutions, which can be implemented and scaled up across the Atlantic. This Hackathon format enables ECOPs to apply their expertise and to translate excellent recommendations into tangible actions and concrete outputs.
From recommendations to reality
The Hackathon focuses on six carefully designed challenges, each addressing a priority from the 2022 All-Atlantic Declaration, whilst focusing on specific geographical contexts to ensure that solutions reflect the Atlantic’s climatic, cultural, and oceanographic diversity:
- Challenge 1: Digital Innovation for Coastal Resilience
- Challenge 2: Low-Cost Technologies for Ocean Observation
- Challenge 3: Digital Mapping for Transatlantic Observation
- Challenge 4: Connecting Data to Decisions: A Small-Scale Fisheries and Aquaculture Hackathon Challenge
- Challenge 5: Monitoring and managing large-scale sargassum blooms and their ecological and socio-economic impacts
- Challenge 6: Blue School Innovation Prototypes for the All-Atlantic Blue School Network
Each challenge has been co-developed with sponsor organisations whose areas of expertise align with the specific challenge being addressed. This ensures that each Hackathon team has access to relevant data, technical infrastructure, and pathways for post-Hackathon implementation.
Teams of ECOPs will tackle each challenge, supported by facilitation teams of LCOPs. Together, teams may develop hardware prototypes, data dashboards, policy frameworks, citizen science methodologies, educational tools, or any demonstrable solution that addresses their assigned challenge.
ECOPs from across the Atlantic were selected to participate prioritising diversity of professional profiles, geographical representation, and technical expertise relevant to each challenge.
The Intergenerational Hackathon is embedded within the All-Atlantic Blue Intergenerational Programme, unveiled during the 2025 edition of the All-Atlantic Forum. The Hackathon will run on 13-14 April, with teams finalising their solutions for presentation during the Forum plenary on 15-16 April.
For ECOPs seeking science diplomacy experience, the Hackathon offers a pathway from conceptual thinking to practical implementation, including meaningful exchanges with LCOPs. For AAORIA Partners, it provides access to innovative thinking from emerging professionals who bring fresh perspectives unburdened by institutional path dependencies. For Atlantic Ocean governance more broadly, it demonstrates that intergenerational collaboration can accelerate solutions to urgent challenges.
The Hackathon represents continuity and evolution. It maintains the collaborative mentorship model that characterised the Ottawa and Brussels Intergenerational Dialogues, whilst introducing competitive elements, intensive timelines, and prototype-focused outputs that push ECOPs and LCOPs to translate ideas into demonstrable solutions.
Stay tuned for the Hackathon results!
Updates on the Hackathon will be shared through the AAORIA website and social media channels. Follow #IntergenerationalHackathon and #AAORIAForum26 on our channels for live updates from Salvador!
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