Open Innovation With Sensory and Consumer Science: Hackathon as a Tool for Academic Industry-Cooperation

The term ‘hackathon’ derives from the words ‘hacking’ and ‘marathon’ and refers to an event in which participants collaborate and compete to solve a challenge or problem during a relatively short period of time. Originally related to a tech domain, the concept has now extended across fields as a tool to encourage innovation, creativity, and problem-solving within a short timeframe. This paper is based on the experience of an international sensory science hackathon conducted within the framework of the European project SEASONED. A 12-h hackathon was developed to face the sensory-related challenge “The flavors of the world: new trends. How can we be agile researching new flavor trends in different parts of the world?” All proposed solutions should include sensory science methods combined with different disciplines. A total of 26 young researchers with different backgrounds and from different countries, organized in 9 teams, collaborated to propose interdisciplinary research methods to study flavor trends in different cultures, providing interesting ideas to food or ingredients companies. A diverse panel of speakers from various disciplines engaged with participants, enriching the challenge theme with a multitude of perspectives. Beyond the tangible results linked to the challenge, the hackathon encouraged networking, learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and idea generation. An exit-survey used to collect data from participants proved the high level of engagement and the usefulness of this kind of activity to stimulate innovative thinking and creativity, learn about sensory science, and promote teamwork and interdisciplinary research.