Preliminary Programme 

Wednesday, 11 November 12:00 – 20:00 (Pre-Summit) 

Kick-off session for selected teams to meet, align, and begin developing their projects. 
Further details on the location and the schedule will be shared soon. 

Friday, 13 November 

Team presentations in front of an expert jury during a dedicated session at the ESC Digital and AI Summit 2026.

The Winning team receives the ESC Hackathon Award 2026, during the Summit’s closing session. 

Who should apply? 

We welcome a diverse range of profiles, including: 

  • Cardiologists, MDs, , Cardiac Surgeons
  • Scientists, Nurse Practitioners, Patients
  • Managers, MBA's, IT- and Digital Health specialists
  • Software developers & AI engineers Health data scientists & ML specialists
  • UX/UI designers
  • Product managers
  • Entrepreneurs & startup founders
  • Researchers & PhD candidates (at any stage of their carreer)
  • Legal and policy experts in AI governance 

A total of 25 participants will be selected, forming 5 multidisciplinary teams of 5 members. 

How to get involved 

Step 1: Call for topics – now open 

Have a challenge or use case to propose? Submit your topic and contribute to shaping the Hackathon !

All submissions must include a hackathon topic project description, defined target user group, available datasets (where applicable), ethical and regulatory considerations and expected outcome format. 

Deadline: 28 May 

 

Selected topics (5 total) will be announced in June.
The jury will select topics based on excellence, feasibility, originality and impact.

Step 2: Call for participants - open in July

Once topics are selected, applications will open for participants. 
Places are limited, it will be on a first come first served basis. 

More information on the application process will be shared in July.