Pharos Plastic Fantastic Hackathon: BootCamp Report

• May 15, 2026

A virtual battleground turned into a cradle of solutions this week as the PHAROS Plastic Fantastic Hackathon concluded its high‑stakes finale with a wave of breakthrough ideas to tackle the plastic crisis choking our seas. Organised by Impact Hub Athens under the EU‑funded PHAROS project, the online challenge kicked off on 11 May with a three‑day bootcamp, then surged into two final hackathon days on 18 and 19 May, where 12 hand‑picked finalists pitched their visions to a jury of blue‑economy experts.

By the time the last virtual slide was cast, the jury had selected two winners per track – though the true victory may belong to the ocean itself. The mission: design disruptive, scalable approaches to detect, collect, prevent and valorise marine plastic.

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From Bootcamp to Battlefield: Three Days of Hardcore Mentoring

Before the final pitch‑off, 20 selected participants entered a rigorous bootcamp from 11 to 13 May – a crash course in turning passion into viable ventures.

Day 1

Opened with a warm welcome and an overview of the PHAROS project, followed by a Business Modelling Masterclass led by Stefan Kurandic (Relevant) and Lorena Silvestri (.jes). Participants split into parallel tracks: Track A tackled the Social Business Model Canvas, while Track B learned to condense an entire business plan into “Your Business Model in 10 Slides.”

Day 2

Sharpened the weapons. George Stratigopoulos (Uni.Fund) ran a Pitching Masterclass on storytelling, clarity and investor readiness, skills that would prove vital 48 hours later. The afternoon’s “Meet the Changemakers” session brought real‑world fire: Andy Bownds (Ecobrix), Anouck Lalauze (Up‑Fuse) and Argyris Moystakas (Searidrones) shared raw lessons from the frontlines of circular economy and marine sustainability, followed by a no‑holds‑barred Q&A.

Day 3

Offered an inspirational keynote from Amaia Rodriguez Sola of Gravity Wave, a powerful talk titled “From Collection to Prevention” that reframed the challenge from cleanup to upstream redesign.

https://youtu.be/3uUrG63dVV8

The Final Sprint: 18–19 May

After the bootcamp, the 12 finalists (selected from the original 20) regrouped for two intense days of concept development, mentorship and the final live pitches. Teams refined their business models, stress‑tested their assumptions, and then faced a jury of investors, engineers and marine biologists.

The winners (two per track) remain under embargo until official announcements later next week, but organisers hint at “wildly original” solutions ranging from AI‑powered debris detection to closed‑loop valorisation systems that turn ghost nets into high‑value materials.

For now, the ocean has a little more hope – and 12 teams have a lot more work to do.