Health and Life Sciences Cluster, together with the BIO-RED consortium and the Spinoff Europa initiative, is launching the BIO-RED Cross-Regional Hackathon 2026, a three-day in-person event taking place from 9–11 September 2026 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The hackathon will bring together interregional teams from across Europe to develop investment-ready business cases addressing real-world challenges in AI diagnostics and EU regulatory readiness.

Participants will work on three key challenge areas: Regulatory, Ethics & Market Access Readiness; Cross-Border Data Sharing & Federated Validation; and Health Data Hub & AI Compute Access. The strongest business cases emerging from the hackathon will be invited to continue in the dedicated Biotech & Pharma Accelerator Programme, supporting teams on their path from concept to market.

The event is open to researchers, biotech and pharmaceutical SMEs and startups, clinical and data experts, as well as regulatory, ethics and public authority representatives from across Europe. Travel and accommodation may be covered for selected participants from partner regions in Portugal, France, Denmark, Lithuania, Greece and Sweden, subject to approval by Health and Life Sciences Cluster.

Applications are open until 05 September 2026. More information and registration are available via the Spinoff Europa platform: 

BIO-RED Cross-Regional Hackathon 2026 / https://www.spinoff.bg/bio-red-cross-regional-hackathon-2026 /

Apply as a participant  // Register as speaker / mentor