The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) announced today, April 27, the official launch of the Civic Tech Taiwan “Disaster Preparedness Building Blocks Innovation Challenge: Civic Tech for a Resilient Taiwan.” This challenge introduces the concept of "building-block design," using the Mataian River landslide dam disaster as a primary scenario. It calls on the technical communities, designers, students, public sector partners, and members of the public concerned with public issues to form teams and participate in developing reusable and flexibly combinable disaster preparedness digital tools, much like building blocks. Submissions are open from today until June 1, inviting the private sector and civic communities to join hands with the government to build a more resilient digital disaster preparedness system for Taiwan through civic technology collaboration.

MODA stated that, in the face of extreme weather and complex disaster challenges brought about by climate change, disaster preparedness is no longer the task of a single agency, but requires cross-sector and cross-community collaboration. During disasters, frontline workers and local citizens experience firsthand the actual needs and operational challenges. Their feedback and practical scenarios are the key foundation for developing applicable, user-friendly, and expandable disaster preparedness components. If functions such as reporting, data aggregation, analysis, and visualization can be broken down into reconfigurable "disaster preparedness building blocks" through an open framework and a shared component library, both existing system optimization and new system construction can be quickly assembled and deployed immediately, greatly improving response efficiency.

MODA emphasized that the event continues the spirit of Civic Tech, hoping to foster open-source and shared disaster preparedness components that can be continuously developed through the challenge mechanism, gradually establishing a “common disaster preparedness component library” as a digital infrastructure for future use by central and local governments and private teams. Through public-private collaboration and technological co-creation, disaster preparedness can move beyond one-off projects and become a public asset that can be continuously built up and optimized. The challenge process also encourages participating teams to make good use of generative AI and various smart technologies, whether in concept development, interface design, program development, or directly integrating AI into the components' functionality, all of which can become innovative highlights.

The Disaster Preparedness Building Blocks Innovation Challenge: Civic Tech for a Resilient Taiwan is now open for registration. Individuals and teams with digital application skills are cordially invited by MODA to participate and collectively enhance Taiwan's disaster preparedness and response capabilities. For details and registration information, please visit the challenge website: https://civictech.moda.gov.tw/