Morocco Cohort 2

• The team focused on innovation surrounding the region’s core industry: phosphate mining. After analyzing the startup and local research community, the team found that there weren’t enough linkages between the two to support innovation-driven enterprises.
• As a result, they created the first-ever hackathon focused on phosphates mining and related processes to build an integrated innovation and entrepreneurial community.
  • The hackathon united entrepreneurship and research students with subcontractors and investment fund employees from OCP, along with technologists and mining experts. The group studied water usage, renewable energy, mining site rehabilitation and sludge, industrial maintenance, and nonconventional uses of phosphates.
  • The hackathon resulted in three solutions, now supported by the OCP Entrepreneurship Network.
• Plan to continue to host a series of hackathons and develop the OCP Entrepreneurship Network, which will connect local entrepreneurs and disruptive ideas with OCP
• Metrics of Success:
  • Number of diverse participants (researchers, entrepreneurs, students, gender etc.)
  • Origin of the participants (region, nationality)
  • Number of pitched ideas
  • Number of projects implemented post-hackathon

Phosphate Hackathon