The Social Hackathon as a tool for innovation in short food supply chains
From 3 to 6 July 2025, the Umbrian village of Spello hosted over 400 participants from 24 countries for the Social Hackathon Umbria (SHU2025), an international event dedicated to digital creativity, social innovation and civic engagement. Each year, SHU is inspired by a different Sustainable Development Goal from the United Nations 2030 Agenda: the 2025 edition focused on biodiversity, explored in relation to its environmental, social and cultural aspects.In a non-competitive but cooperative context, multidisciplinary teams co-designed digital solutions around the theme of biodiversity.
In a context such as that of the short agri-food supply chain, innovation is perceived as a technical process, focused on production, processing or logistics. However, looking closely at the Social Hackathon Umbria, a different and complementary perspective emerges strongly: social and digital innovation can generate profound and lasting impacts even for short supply chains, when fuelled by cultural influence, active participation and international openness.
It is precisely in this thematic and methodological transition that the replicable value of the experience lies: a hackathon is not just a technological event, but can become a space for mediation between different actors in the supply chain, where farmers, makers, students, local authorities and creatives work together on a real challenge, generating innovative solutions and valuable relationships.
Among the projects that emerged, for example, Germina developed a digital platform that catalogues traditional Umbrian seeds and links them to historical local recipes, in a system that combines genetic conservation, food education and gastronomic enhancement. It is not just a database, but a narrative and relational tool for those who work on biodiversity in the field and want to communicate with new audiences. Another project, LunAroma, explored the sensory and educational potential of botanical biodiversity, opening up interesting scenarios for taste museums, agritourism and educational trails. The creative use of technology has made it possible to bring citizens closer to complex issues — from desertification to the loss of variety — in accessible, immersive and engaging ways.
But beyond the individual project outputs, it is the participatory format of the Social Hackathon that offers valuable lessons for the world of SCFCs. In particular, the biodiversity exhibition and market, included in the official programme of the event, demonstrated how it is possible to combine concrete agricultural experience with the international and generative dimension of social innovation. Local producers, often accustomed to operating in limited markets or standardised promotional contexts, were able to engage in direct dialogue with young innovators, digital artists and representatives of other European rural ecosystems, exchanging ideas, languages and perspectives. For some, it was an opportunity to rethink their business narrative; for others, it was a first step towards forms of inter-territorial cooperation or the exploration of new tools for traceability, education, or communication.
For consultants in the sector, experiences such as SHU invite us to imagine new formats for supporting businesses: not just technical or individual paths, but contexts of collective innovation, where relationships are built, languages are explored and ideas are prototyped. At a time in history when sustainability can no longer be separated from the cultural and social dimensions of agriculture, events like this offer a fertile platform for generating networks, cross-influence and radical innovations that are rooted in the local area.
For policymakers and promoters of European networks such as EU4ADVICE, the SHU model suggests at least three key ideas for the future:
- Integrate moments of open and participatory innovation into SCFC support processes, capable of activating new energies and unconventional skills;
- Promote transnational connections between rural and urban areas, enhancing local specificities but within a shared European framework;
- Support the narrative of biodiversity as an economic, cultural and educational value, not just an environmental one, by facilitating the development of digital and creative tools that make this content accessible.
In short, the Social Hackathon Umbria is not just an event, yet a method: a replicable, flexible, generative process that can make a concrete contribution to the growth of short supply chains as resilient ecosystems, open to innovation and capable of responding to global challenges. For those who work alongside local producers every day, it means putting people, relationships and stories back at the core of agriculture, which is never just about production, but always about culture, community and future.
