IFA HACKATHON 2026

Track the loaf the rest of the way home, and make non-specialists care about the answer.

Build a working model that traces nitrogen from harvested grain through milling, baking, packaging, distribution, and retail. The model must produce a numeric NUE result for the 1 kg loaf, and visualize that result in a way that a non-specialist would understand and share.
Connect the result to nutritional density — protein per gram of product, or protein delivered per kilogram of nitrogen in the raw material (harvested grain). Show what changes for product variants  (e.g. baguette vs. whole meal sliced loaf).
This is the challenge where consumer-facing translation matters most. The prototype should be defensible as a model and arresting as a piece of communication.

Design and prototype the technical architecture that connects everything else.

Design and prototype the technical architecture for an end-to-end nitrogen traceability system. Schema, APIs, data flows, verification mechanism, integration points with existing platforms (CoolFarm, Overseer, Global Standards 1 (GS1), European Union-style traceability infrastructure, supply-chain Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, food company sustainability stacks). Decide explicitly where you reuse existing infrastructure and where you propose something new — and defend each choice.
Build a working slice. It does not have to be wide, but it must demonstrate end-to-end how a nitrogen data point moves from a farm input event to a retail shelf display. The slice is what separates a credible architecture from a slide deck.

Turn nitrogen-flow data into a real-world decision-support mechanism people would actually use.

Translate nitrogen-flow data into a decision-support mechanism that drives behavior change in the real world. The Provocation Cards from Phase 1 are especially live for this challenge — expect to
be tested on how directly your work answers a card.
Pick one of the following — or propose your own and clear it with a mentor or the organizers — and build a credible minimal viable product (MVP) for it: a consumer-facing label or NUE score; a farm-loan or insurance product that rewards NUE performance; a sustainability-reporting credit for the food industry; a procurement standard for a major food brand or retailer; a sustainability-linked bond mechanism; a draft regulation or government incentive scheme.
Whatever you build must demonstrate three things: it uses the Phase 1 data and vocabulary as its substrate; it produces measurable behavior change for at least one actor in the chain; and it is plausibly implementable within an investment, regulatory, or commercial timeframe a real
decision-maker would recognize.