SIXFOLD joins the ENACT Transnational Hackathon: sprinting from ideas to impact

Our contribution will be hands-on. Over three days, we will support teams to frame the right challenges, prototype the most critical parts of their solution, and test with real users. We bring a sprint approach that is rigorous yet flexible, tailored to the realities of agri-food value chains where margins are tight, stakeholders are many, and outcomes must be both sustainable and market-ready. Rather than chasing polish, we prioritise evidence: what must be true for this solution to work, and how do we test that quickly?

The hackathon themes align closely with our practice. Capacity building starts with clarity—clear beneficiaries, clear outcomes, and clear next steps—so we will share simple tools that teams can continue to use after the event. On sustainability and resource optimisation, we encourage credible, comparable metrics from day one: baselines, proxy indicators and scenario thinking that make environmental and cost impacts legible to buyers and partners. For market integration and linkage, we focus on value propositions that resonate with demand, early partner engagement, and light-touch pricing tests that shorten the path from pilot to purchase order. Collaboration and networking are built into our sprint rituals; we help teams articulate who they need, why they need them, and what a realistic first agreement looks like. And on digitalisation, we emphasise “data model first” thinking, interoperability and privacy-by-design, ensuring digital tools serve the process rather than define it.

Participants can expect a structured, supportive journey. The opening sessions concentrate on focus: refining problem statements, mapping stakeholders and agreeing on success criteria. Midway, the emphasis shifts to options and prototyping, where teams translate ideas into the minimum artefacts needed to test their riskiest assumptions—service blueprints, clickable mock-ups, data mocks or one-page pricing offers. The final day is about learning and decision-making: talking to users, capturing signals on desirability and feasibility, and converting those insights into a concrete plan—pivot, persevere or park—with a short list of next experiments.

As jury members, we will look for clarity of problem and beneficiary, evidence of learning through testing, feasibility aligned with team capacity and context, credible sustainability gains, a visible market pathway, and the potential to scale across regions. A polished demo counts for less than a well-tested hypothesis and a realistic roadmap.

This is an open call for Social Economy actors active in the agri-food sector. You may apply as a participant, mentor or jury member. To support participation, a lump sum will be granted to cover travel, meals, accommodation and other related costs to attend in Vilnius. The process is straightforward: consult the Call Document, submit the online Application Form, monitor your inbox for the selection and awarding steps—and get ready to work closely with peers, domain experts and market stakeholders.