Belfast MAKEitDAIRY: A blended MAKEathon for healthier and more sustainable dairy products.

The Belfast MAKEitDAIRY is a unique blended MAKEathon where participants will work online in teams to generate new business ideas that would help create new healthy and more sustainable dairy products. The ideas will be converted into physical prototypes with the support from the Food Technology Centre at CAFRE and the design team.

The challenge: How do we make healthy and sustainable dairy products?

How:

A MAKEathon works like a hackathon but with an additional opportunity to make a physical prototype of the ideas that you have generated.

The teams will work virtually to generate ideas and create digital prototypes using online tools such as Zoom, Slack, Miro etc.

On Day 1 (24 November), you will learn more about the design thinking approach,the  tools available to you and about prototyping.

Days 2 and 3 (25 and 26 November) will be dedicated to generation of ideas and prototyping. On the following 4 days, (27 - 30 November), the prototypes can be made at the Food Technology Centre (CAFRE), or you can continue working on them at home.

On the 1 December, we will hold an official closing ceremony and announce the winning team.

This is a unique opportunity to take part in this specially designed MAKEathon organised by Queen's University Belfast and the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise in association with EIT Food.

The Belfast MAKEitDAIRY team will provide:

• Virtual ideation platforms
• Informative webinars
• Virtual mentoring and guidance
• Craft materials
• Remote prototyping service

Craft materials

The making kit will be posted to the participants for home prototyping. Due to the logistics, we regret that we will be able to post only to the UK and Europe. For the participants from other regions, we will provide the list of materials to source independently.

Who we are looking for:

Undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers who are, or can be, hackers, makers, storytellers, foodies, nudgers, sociologists, scientists, communicators, entrepreneurs, designers and more. You don’t have to be a professional in the dairy industry, just be willing to bring your expertise, passion and team spirit to work collaboratively to solve the problem at hand.

PEOPLE FROM ALL DISCIPLINES ARE HIGHLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.  We are committed to diversity and members of under-represented groups are particularly encouraged to apply.

Belfast MAKEitDAIRY is part of a series of MAKEathons delivered by the MAKEit Project under the consortium of EIT Food, partially funded by the EIT. MAKEit tackles problems in various food supply chains, including fruit & vegetable, sugar, cocoa, dairy, meat, bread & bakery and seafood.

To register your interest in MAKEitDAIRY, please complete the form here.

Deadline for applications - Sunday 15 November, 23:00 GMT.

For further questions, email: qub.eitfoodeducation@qub.ac.uk