48 Hours for the Baltic Sea: Hack4Change 2026 Kicks Off

More than 100 programmers, environmentalists, designers, and innovators from all over Poland will gather in Gdańsk to spend 48 hours developing technologies that support the well-being of our planet. From June 26–28, 2026, the laboratories of the Faculty of Biology at the University of Gdańsk will become the center of a technological and ecological revolution during the sixth edition of the Hack4Change hackathon. This year, the CODE:ME Foundation’s flagship “green” event has taken on a powerful, blue mission.

Mission 2026: Saving the Baltic Sea

As in previous years, during Hack4Change, interdisciplinary teams will develop solutions to combat environmental pollution and climate change and to improve the quality of life in local communities. An additional challenge for this year’s edition will be to create a solution related to the protection of Pomerania’s aquatic ecosystems.

Thanks to the support of the InvestGDA Foundation and Balticon as part ofthe “EcoFuture”program, the hackathon will become the technological heart of the“See the Sea”autonomous project—a comprehensive initiative to save the Baltic Sea and Gdańsk Bay.

The Baltic Sea and its surrounding areas are dying right before our eyes. Tons of plastic are flowing into it via rivers, and marine flora and fauna are suffocating in the pollution ,” says Marcin Młyński, CEO of the CODE:ME Foundation and the project’s founder. “As part of ‘See the Sea,’ we’re carrying out small initiatives that have a huge impact on the future of our ecosystem: we clean up rivers, plant trees, and educate the public, but we know that it’s still not enough. That’s why we decided to take it a step further and do what we do every day—put technology to work.”

This year’s Hack4Change is taking place under the theme: “Seeing the Baltic Sea as it should be.” The organizers encourage participants to focus their projects on the aquatic ecosystem—for example, by creating tools for monitoring pollution, analyzing environmental data, developing educational apps, or other solutions that support the field activities of the “See the Sea” project.

Who is Hack4Change for?

Hack4Change is a nationwide hackathon that demonstrates how technology can support environmental protection. Participants in the event do not create abstract algorithms. Over the course of 48 hours, with the support of 40 experienced mentors, they design working prototypes of solutions that address the most pressing environmental and social issues.

This year, the competition and brainstorming sessions will focus on three well-known areas: People, Nature, and Technology.

The organizers emphasize that the best ideas emerge at the intersection of different worlds. Not only programmers, but also the following are invited to participate in the hackathon:

graphic designers, visual artists, and UX designers,
sociologists and psychologists,
environmentalists, biologists, and all enthusiasts who want to actively fight the climate crisis.

More Than Just Technology

At Hack4Change, we don’t code just for the sake of coding—we’re changing the world, one step at a time. The goal of this year’s hackathon is to improve the effectiveness of nature conservation in the Baltic Sea and local ecosystems by combining various initiatives

environmentally friendly solutions that utilize modern technologies, such as open city data analysis, AI, and no-code tools.

While Hack4Change builds digital tools, the “See the Sea” project brings about change physically. The community centered around both initiatives has already removed over 3 metric tons of trash from the Reda and Zagórska Struga rivers and cleaned up the Beka Nature Reserve, demonstrating that the combination of technology and local engagement can yield tangible results.