As part of a partnership between the Eurasia foundation and Ukrainian open data incubator 1991, the Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services (TAPAS) organised a challenge event over one weekend to help Ukrainian startups innovate with open data
The TAPAS project: aiming to achieve openness in Ukraine
At the start of 2017, the ODI teamed up with the Eurasia Foundation and Ukrainian open data incubator 1991 to form the Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services (TAPAS) project.
The main focus of TAPAS is to foster greater openness and transparency in Ukraine, which it does by supporting innovators who are working to achieve transparency with open data. To ensure that Ukraine’s most talented innovators are given the help they need, TAPAS organised a nationwide startup competition.
The competition: data startups compete to win prize money
The competition is set up as follows: startups bid to take part via an open call and an online application process. The list of applicants are then sifted down to just 20 startups, who take part in a head-to-head pitching competition one weekend in August. After pitching their product in front of a panel, the 10 best competing startups receive a free two-month incubation programme in 1991 Open Data Incubator under the guidance of top mentors and experts in the field. Throughout the incubation program, the startups finalise prototypes for their business models, products and services, and test them for usability. After incubation, the three best teams share the prize money, summing a total of 1.5m Ukrainian Hryvnia (approx £44,561GBP).
The finalists
The competition, which received 170 applications, happened in the centre of Kiev on 8–9 July, and the finalists are as follows. Once their websites have been created, we will link them for more information:
Court on the palm – application for lawyers which helps to find information from the register of court decisions for a multitude of filters with a judicial analyst.
Blue Liner – IT solutions for improving the quality and reliability of conventional and electric transport.
RIPsearch – tool that will help you find the burial place of a person through data search.
Fines UA – an easy method for inspecting and paying fines.
DonorUA – platform for the quick search of blood donors to solve donor problems at the system level.
Dear MPs – interactive mobile application with elements of gameplay that allows to control the actions of MPs of the Verkhovna Rada.
InfoFlow – system of monitoring of state and communal property - land, real estate objects, which contains comprehensive information about them.
BIM-model of the city – virtual 3D layout of the city that will combine any information about the territory and accelerate the decision-making process for planning, building, construction and arrangement of space.
Open Coal Market – platform that will allow the market price of coal to be established through stock market auctions, which will provide additional revenues to the budget.
How to make a startup – platform with instructions for startup entrepreneurs to register and conduct business in Ukraine.
Richard Stirling, ODI Associate and panel judge, hailed the competition as an inspiring success:
The interesting thing for me was the diversity of applications. We had teams solving transparency in coal markets, the gamification of MP performance and even one looking to bring a little transparency to graveyards. This points to the broad spectrum of problems that can solved using open data and open approaches.
The 10 finalists are now beginning their incubation at the 1991 Open Data Incubator to improve their business models and services. The winners will be announced 21 September. You can see more photos of the competition on its Facebook page.
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