Green Chemistry, ideas, innovation: Kyiv Polytechnic team wins Global Greenchem Hackathon 2025
Following the wrap-up of the 14th International Festival of Innovation Projects Sikorsky Challenge, the Global Greenchem Hackathon 2025 took place from 31 October to 2 November 2025, in line with the format of the festival and within the framework of the Global GreenChem Innovation & Network Programme.
The purpose of hackathon’s tasks was to find opportunities to replace traditional petrochemical substances with alternative functional additives of natural origin for industrial use in the production of building materials.
More than ten teams of researchers and students from the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Sumy, Lviv and Khmelnytskyi worked on innovative solutions commissioned by Dow, the US materials science company, and Elf Decor, the leading Ukrainian manufacturer of decorative materials. Over the course of three days, the teams not only developed their own concepts to fulfil the set tasks, but also attended the lecture “Fundamentals of Green Chemistry: How to Develop Safe Products” delivered by Oleksandr Khokhotva, a chemical management expert at the Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) Centre. Team members also participated in the workshop “Theory of Solving Inventive Problems” conducted by Kateryna Vershynina and Andrii Salamatov, co-owners of the 4press creative agency and the Zelena Ka4ka (green duck) Telegram channel.
A team called “Synergy 404” from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Biotechnics (FBT) at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute won the contest and received a cheque for $1,500. The winning team was made up of fourth-year students Yuliia Horbachova, Mariia Dolbeshchenkova and Oleksandra Sapitash from the FBT Department of Industrial Biotechnology and Biopharmacy. The team was led by Vitalii Klochko, associate professor at FBT. They proposed a technology for developing water-dispersible latex based on terpene monomers obtained through biosynthesis.
It is worth noting too that the FBT team participated in the Global Greenchem Hackathon for the second time. In addition to his teaching duties, Vitalii Klochko’s areas of responsibilities include the scientific work of the department and he serves as a senior researcher at the Department of Physiology and Systematics of Micromycetes of the D.K. Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology, affiliated to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Fruitful scientific cooperation between the FBT and this institute enabled the Synergy 404 team to offer well-founded and balanced solutions.
The programme was implemented within UNIDO’s major initiative on Green Chemistry, supported by the Global Environment Facility, in partnership with US-based Yale University and the Ukraine’s RECP Centre.
According to the members of Synergy 404, participation in such events is very useful, as it empowers students to use practically the theoretical knowledge they have gained at university to solve real-world problems or create prototypes of innovative solutions. They also have a unique opportunity to network with like-minded peers, lecturers, mentors, industry representatives, and potential employers. Looking ahead, young participants in hackathons will be able to add a notable achievement to their CVs. Thus, scientific hackathons are not merely contests, but a powerful educational platform that prepares students to work in the challenging environment of the modern technological world.
https://www.globalgreenchem.com/
