Start-ups Incubation

Rural Sustainability Hackathons
Rural in Action Start-up Scheme (RA2s)

 

We offer incubation opportunity and support to graduates or participants who have completed courses or educational activities organised by the Academy for Sustainable Communities.

 

Rural Sustainability Hackathons

Rural Sustainability Hackathons are community incubation events for people who are passionate about the betterment of our rural areas to converge and consolidate new ideas into actions. The Hackathons provide an occasion for idea jamming, exchange of perspectives, and facilitating collaborations among individuals from different sectors and backgrounds. Innovative ideas will be cultivated and discussed; concrete action plans for rural sustainable development will be developed during the Hackathons. 

In June 2019, the Academy held its first sustainability hackathon with the theme of Rural Technology. Over 50 participants gathered at HKU, preparing through a series of inspiring sustainable development, innovation, design thinking, and marketing talks and workshops and forming teams to begin conceiving their projects. Participating teams made visits to partner villages to understand their struggles and potentials. Following three weeks of preparation, 12 teams pitched their projects to a panel of judges. One team, stood out for the innovation, impact and viability of their proposed Vitex negundo project, winning them the first place and a cash prize of HK$10,000.

The second Sustainability Hackathon was held in August 2020 with the theme “Hong Kong’s Sustainable Food System”. 60 participants joined a series of ignite talks on food and participated in various activities to go through the design thinking steps, and then formed into 18 teams to submit innovative proposals to tackle real challenges in Hong Kong’s food system. Eight teams were selected to pitch for the awards and a team which proposed a project on urban beekeeping won the first place and a cash prize of HK$10,000. 

 

Rural in Action Start-up Scheme (RA2s)

The Rural in Action Start-up Scheme (RA2s) of the Academy for Sustainable Communities is an award scheme that provides start-ups incubation opportunity to fellows of the Sustainable Communities Fellowship Scheme. RA2s encourages talents in the society to take actions to foster rural-urban interactions and collaborations for the sustainable development of rural areas.

Application is now closed. A total of 10 projects were approved with a start-up grant of up to HKD200,000 per project as a seed fund for project implementation. Other support offered by the scheme may include training opportunities, community networks, promotion and publicity, and professional advice on rural affairs.

Approved projects: