The eight MIA-winners are already implementing their projects for which they received 50 000 Euro each! How was the Makers Innovation Award in milestones?
Idea Cultivation Event was the first opportunity for gathering together approximately 50 makers (offline and online) and improve their project ideas with the help of experienced facilitators. 85% of the participants found the workshop useful and 65% improved their initial idea: “I gained experience in communication, analyzed my project and competitors. I found inspiring professionals”. Another participant shared their experience: "Idea Cultivation Workshop was useful for me because the feasibility of my idea was confirmed in the environment of makers from all over the country…”.
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Olena Kukhar, the co-facilitator shared her vision on the success of the Idea Cultivation Event especially because it not only helped to realize the urgent problems of the maker community and ways to solve them, but also to identify oneself as a maker: "Oh, so we are makers?” These last are the exact words that sounded several times at the location during the event. It became clear that now the community is rediscovering itself, its face and heart."
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Virtual training sessions aimed to introduce the specific requirements for Makers Innovation Award to potential applicants as well as develop capacities of writing applications for grants and making project ideas more specific and tangible. All participants found the session useful (15%) or very useful (85%). Moreover, it was not only about learning how to write an application: “In addition to specific information, I came up with several insights for my idea. I believe that this was mostly thanks to the presenters and the format of the event itself. In general, very pleasant and open communication that inspires and provides an internal resource”.
Pitch Event - gathered 14 organizations which submitted their applications with project ideas for recovery and social cohesion in Ukraine. The participants not only had the opportunity to present their projects in front of experienced jury members and the audience, but they also got constructive feedback and all (!) found potential for future collaborations: “Found new partners for cooperation, future participants for the experience exchange program and members for the Ukrainian maker association”.
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Moreover, the atmosphere was vivid and the overall level was high: “There were very cool ideas and high-quality pitches that set a new high bar for me personally”. Thus, 90% of the participants got inspired by the Pitch Event! The majority mentioned in their feedback that they learned very important aspects of grant applications.
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Mentoring sessions: three joint mentoring sessions with the winners on legal matters, project management tools as well as a training game on the implementation of the education projects were designed according to the actual needs of the winners. The mentoring session on legal matters, the questions on reporting, contractual matters as well as staff-related issues were discussed. However, the session provided the “general insight into processes that are happening beyond my reach”. The highlight of the second joint session was detailed discussion of the methods of decision making directed at strengthening the capabilities of the team and the organization which will help to improve the efficiency of work as well as achieve more sustainable results in the projects for recovery, with 71% of the participants improving their skills. Additionally, “the picture of possible directions of development became somewhat clearer” and the suggestion presented at the session about cooperation with local businesses for further support in the project were underlined as useful. The training game on “WOW effect” on educational projects helped to get acquainted with “interesting creative ideas”. The feedback we got: “Thanks to the elements of gamification, I better understood the technical scenarios by which we can implement the project at the stage of transferring equipment to universities”.
MIA team (betterplace lab and Future challenges) are pleased to have accompanied makers in Ukraine on their way to make their contribution into the innovation eco-system in Ukraine amid the war, aiming at recovery and social cohesion. We wish all organizations the best of luck at the implementation of their projects!
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#TOLOCAR is a project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ @bmz_bund) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH with support of betterplace lab gGmbH and Future Challenges e.V. in close collaboration with Ukrainian and international partners.