Written by GIG is celebrating as we have received confirmation from the European Commission that our project mAkE will receive funding from the Horizon grant programme and we can start implementation in February 2022. This is an amazing opportunity to advance decentralised production systems between African and European makerspaces as mAkE will create a joint ecosystem with and for European and African hubs.
Over the course of three years, mAkE will:
- create a distributed manufacturing network of makerspaces across Africa. Strengthening innovation ecosystems for digital hardware startups and initiatives at the local level, nationally and on a pan-African level.
- equip makerspaces with necessary resources to target critical development issues and create meaningful, impact oriented innovations, including their capacity to build impact oriented, climate relevant, technologies and solutions thereby supporting the digitalisation of traditional sectors in Africa.
- support the creation of new business models for African hardware start-ups and provide business training opportunities, thereby enhancing entrepreneurial and innovation skills of makers and hardware start-ups.
- foster the development of an enabling environment, thereby strengthening local digital innovation and hardware startup ecosystems by community building and creating new networks with funders, corporates and local governments.
- enable the formulation of a common policy approach for makerspaces and their role in the digital innovation and local production ecosystem
- mAkE will foster the development of an enabling environment, thereby strengthening local digital innovation and hardware startup ecosystems. This enabling environment will include establishing new networks between local governments, international networks, academic institutions, early stage investors and corporates.
If you are interested in working with us on this project, please get in touch on [email protected]!
