# The Future of Hackathon Research and Practice

**Authors:** Jeanette Falk, Alexander Nolte, Daniela Huppenkothen, Marion Weinzierl, Kiev Gama, Daniel Spikol, Erik Tollerud, Neil Chue Hong, Ines Knäpper, Linda Bailey Hayden  
**arXiv:** [2211.08963](https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.08963)  
**Date:** 2022-11-16  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/paper/2211.08963v1/

## Key points

- Hackathons are collaborative events used to accelerate the development of scientific results, collaborations, communities, and innovative prototypes addressing urgent challenges.
- An interdisciplinary collaborative analysis was conducted at the Lorentz Center in Leiden in December 2021 to address challenges such as limited exchange of best practices and research findings, and larger overarching questions that require interdisciplinary collaboration.
- The results of this analysis were presented in terms of six important areas that contribute to maturing hackathon research and practice:
- Hackathons for different purposes
- Socio-technical event design
- Scaling up
- Making hackathons equitable
- Studying hackathons
- Hackathon goals and how to reach them
- A co-authorship analysis using VOSview with a RIS export from the Lens Scholarly Analysis was also conducted which illustrated how siloed the research in this area is with limited inter-cluster connections between the 470 co-authors who met the threshold.
- Key aspects of logistics and facilitation for organizing successful hackathons include creating an informal atmosphere that allows for spontaneity while ensuring flexible spaces for participants' needs.
- There is a need for more formal studies to improve hackathon organization while connecting siloed research clusters through interdisciplinary collaborations to address larger overarching questions.

## Summary

Hackathons are collaborative events that have become a global phenomenon, adopted by both researchers and practitioners in various contexts. These events are generally used to accelerate the development of scientific results and collaborations, communities, and innovative prototypes addressing urgent challenges. To address certain challenges such as limited exchange of best practices and research findings, and larger overarching questions that require interdisciplinary collaboration, an interdisciplinary collaborative analysis was conducted at the Lorentz Center in Leiden in December 2021. The results of this analysis were presented in terms of six important areas that contribute to maturing hackathon research and practice: hackathons for different purposes; socio-technical event design; scaling up; making hackathons equitable; studying hackathons; and hackathon goals and how to reach them. A co-authorship analysis using VOSview with a RIS export from the Lens Scholarly Analysis was also conducted. The visualization illustrated how siloed the research in this area is with limited inter-cluster connections between the 470 co-authors who met the threshold. In terms of organizing hackathons, key aspects of logistics and facilitation were summarized based on experience-based anecdotes rather than studies. A key element of successful hackathons is creating an informal atmosphere that allows for spontaneity while ensuring flexible spaces for participants' needs. Overall, there is a need for more formal studies to improve hackathon organization while connecting siloed research clusters through interdisciplinary collaborations to address larger overarching questions.