ArcTech Data Contest to Determine Best Digital Services Projects for Arctic on 11 August

Digital service projects for the Arctic and the winners of the ArcTech Data contest will be presented in St. Petersburg on 11 August. Of the 110 contestants, 20 IT teams were selected to participate in the final round, where they will present their developments in urban studies, ecology, and tourism. ArcTech Data is part of the 2023 Arctic Technology Contest (ArcTech) and is part of the plan of events of Russia’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021–2023, which are managed by the Roscongress Foundation.

ArcTech Data is a contest for product and IT teams that are ready to develop test versions of digital sustainable development services based on real data to assist business and the government in taking effective decisions and improve the quality of life in the Arctic. The projects are being developed as part of three groups: ‘Arctic Urbanization’, ‘Arctic Ecology’, and ‘Arctic Tourism’.

The first group involves developing solutions to optimize the placement of urban facilities taking into account transport accessibility or to identify settlements with limited access to medical care.

The second group entails developing IT solutions to analyse environmental problems and risks associated with mining or services to optimize the location of pollution monitoring and waste collection facilities in the Arctic.

As part of the third group, the contestants will present tools to assess demand for tourism in the Arkhangelsk Region or an interactive visualization service for urban development by year or type of development, which helps with planning a city’s expansion and visually displaying changes.

The event programme also includes the roundtable ‘Arctic Development Strategy: Key Competencies for Unlocking the Potential of the Russian Arctic’, as well as strategic sessions on climate change in the Arctic and some of the main focuses for the modernization of Arctic cities.

The event is being organized by the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and the Arctic and the Eastern State Planning Centre. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the partner of the event, which will be attended by representatives of St. Petersburg State University, Sovcomflot, Medsi, MMC Norilsk Nickel, MegaFon, Rosatom, Centre for Spatial Research (Geointellect), and Yandex.

The final of the ArcTech Data contest and the awards ceremony will take place on 11 August at the Mikhailovskaya Dacha campus of the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University. The contest has a prize fund of RUB 3 million. The general sponsor of ArcTech Data is MegaFon, the technological partner is YandexCloud, and the data provider is Geointellect.

The ArcTech contest aims to transform scientific and technological developments into digital ones and create engineering solutions to ensure comfortable living conditions for people in the Arctic and the successful operation of companies in the region. The contest programme includes three focuses: ArcTech Data, ArcTech Engineering, and ArcTech Science Pitch. The overall prize fund of the Arctic Technology Competition 2023 is RUB 10 million. The final round and awards ceremony of the ArcTech Engineering and ArcTech Science Pitch contests will take place on 24 November 2023.