The international hackathon on educational innovation through technology organised by Fundación Telefónica and Fundación “la Caixa”, in collaboration with the Pontifical University of Salamanca and the Telefónica Chairs Network, returns for its seventh edition.
Under the slogan Solutions for real educational challenges, the official launch will take place on 16 September at 5.00 pm at 42 Madrid, in an event that will also be streamed live on the ProFuturo website. During the event, full details of this year’s edition will be revealed, alongside testimonials from previous years’ winners, as well as a panel of experts focusing on the challenges, who will discuss future challenges, their different perspectives and some key insights for understanding and tackling them. As a new feature, this edition will also see the participation of the Wayra team.
The seventh edition of Hack4Edu marks a new stage in the initiative’s evolution. Following six years of growth, internationalisation and consolidation, Hack4Edu 2026 aims to strengthen its role as an open innovation platform capable of connecting university talent with the major challenges of digital education.
In this edition, the focus will be on technological solutions with greater potential for implementation, particularly those that can address real needs identified through ProFuturo’s international operations. Artificial intelligence, educational data analytics, accessibility, inclusion, personalised learning and the improvement of the teaching experience will continue to be key themes inspiring the challenges and prototypes.
A quantitative and qualitative leap
The trend in participation in this hackathon shows sustained growth: from a first virtual edition in 2020, with teams from six countries and ten universities, to a sixth edition in 2025 with 823 hackers, 28 universities and representation from countries across Latin America and Europe.
The 2026 edition is also envisaged as an opportunity to take a qualitative leap: not only to bring together more participants, but also to better channel the teams’ creative energy towards useful, scalable solutions that are aligned with the strategic challenges of digital education in vulnerable contexts.
Since its inception in 2020, Hack4Edu has evolved from a university hackathon into an international platform for talent, innovation and knowledge generation, connecting students, researchers and lecturers from different countries to develop technological solutions with social impact.
