Building Innovation in Nepal: Impact Hub Kathmandu

Building Innovation in Nepal: Impact Hub Kathmandu

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
photo courtesy of Impact Hub Kathmandu Impact Hub Kathmandu is an open, inclusive and collaborative space designed to give social innovators, entrepreneurs and change-makers somewhere to meet, work, network and learn. They provide a friendly open space that welcomes people from all across Kathmandu, and beyond! They are part of a global network of 105+ Impact Hubs in over 60 countries, working across disciplines, acting across sectors, with amazing people putting ideas into action.  Impact Hub KTM provides business support to Nepali entrepreneurs and businesses with a social purpose. They connect, inspire and support impact entrepreneurs to scale up their projects and enterprises to address some of Nepal’s challenges,  convening changemakers to convert their passion and commitments into meaningful projects. They also have FabLab Nepal, a digital fabrication laboratory to learn, play, create, mentor, invent, and innovate. They provide access to the environment, the skills, the materials, and the advanced technology to allow anyone to make (almost) anything. Since establishment, they have worked...
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Join us in the Critical Making Mentoring Programme 2022

Join us in the Critical Making Mentoring Programme 2022

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
We are excited to launch the Critical Making Mentoring Programme coming up this spring. Here is a sneak peak of what is to be expected! The Mentoring Programme will take place during 2022, requiring only a few hours of active participation per month. Further details will be announced soon! Do you want to stay updated on the mentoring programme? Register your email now to get a special notification when the programme opens for application in April! Update: The mentoring programme is open until the 31st of May. Click here for more details and to apply About Critical Making:Critical Making is a partnership to encourage responsible research & innovation to foster open access, inclusiveness and positive change across the global maker community. Together, we add scientific insights into the potential of the maker movement, and set up activities that focus on critical and socially responsible making. We aim to show how these communities can offer new opportunities for young makers of all genders to contribute to...
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GIG wins mAkE!

GIG wins mAkE!

By Mugethi GitauNo Comments
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...
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News from Instituto Procomum – May 2021

News from Instituto Procomum – May 2021

By Mugethi GitauNo Comments
Publication discusses the role of art in the crisis (UN)Farm: The End Of The World As We Know is a publication that compiles the thinking of 15 artists, activists and commoners from Brazil around communities, politics, aesthetics and imagination. The Cycle was based on the thoughts of Brazilian artists such as Ailton Krenak, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Débora Danowski, whose works approached the concept of the end of the world in different ways.The participants in the conversation cycle were invited to produce texts with reflections on the topic., which can be read and downloaded for free in its online version. https://issuu.com/institutoprocomum/docs/ip_desfazenda-en-v1 Eight citizen innovation actions and ideas for climate change To support communities, economies and the environment to adapt to the impacts caused by climate change, the Instituto Procomum and the British Council Brazil launched this year the second edition of Climate Change LAB. Among them, it is worth mentioning the construction of the Guarani Culture House and Community Kitchen in...
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Edukits: Merging 3D Printing and Education

Edukits: Merging 3D Printing and Education

By Theresa FendNo Comments
‘Education is the most powerful tool that can be used to change the world’ — Nelson Mandela The Bridge the Gap training program is an ongoing initiative that was started by Kumasi Hive in partnership with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), Innovation Factory and e- skills for Girls. The Bridge the Gap program addresses the issue of the gender gap in the technology space. The program trained 60 girls in web development and 3D printing in the first phase, which lasted for one month. We are currently implementing the second phase of the program: the business incubation and internship phase. In this cycle, 10 selected teams are being introduced to global perspectives on leadership and entrepreneurship, the world of business and design, issues that may arise in terms of user experience and how to resolve such problems. They have been provided with the tools and a makerspace where these teams are designing and building prototypes of their products. This week, we are focusing on one of the teams, Edukits,...
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African Digital Economy

African Digital Economy

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Ampion and Plutos Ventures launch new venture for Africa-focused start-ups Focus of the new venture – on site development of digital business models Call for Applications from founders and start-ups with an Africa focus start now! Nairobi & Berlin, 12.03.19 - Africa-focused Ampion and Berlin-based Plutos Ventures Holding today announced the founding of Ampion Ventures. The goal of the new project is to build scalable digital business models in selected African countries by providing seed capital and strategic expertise support. Plutos Venture provides continuous and open-ended funding to Ampion Ventures. Ampion Ventures is led by Fabian-Carlos Guhl, founder of the non-profit organization Ampion.org. Guhl has been working for years on the African continent with founders and early-stage start-ups. Through his very successful start-up bus, with which he has travelled through more than 16 African countries and coached and supported founders in the development of digital business models, Guhl has been able to build up a large network of founders and start-ups in different African countries. Together with Plutos, Ampion is now taking the next logical step to...
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Two years anniversary at Procomum Institute

Two years anniversary at Procomum Institute

By Zen EditorNo Comments
At the Procomum Institute, we just launched our open call for short term residencies at our lab with a focus on arts, communities and aesthetics of the commons. We had 138 registrations for our first commons residency, beautiful people coming from 30 different countries and 25 different Brazilian cities. We consider it a great victory that so many awesome people around the world are interested in imagining the present and the future from other aesthetics, a commons one. We launched a 3 minutes video talking about the beginning of the Colaboradora project: 13 resident artists collaborating in our space. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw3oLVG2Otg   This second video describes our almost 2 years of activity as Procomum Institute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-J7nnYL95E...
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A New Wave of Impact Investments Sweeping Across Egypt

A New Wave of Impact Investments Sweeping Across Egypt

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Alexandria, Egypt- June 27th, 2018: The networking event, taking place in Cairo on June the 28th 2018, titled “Impact Investing and the Future of Startups”, concludes the second part of the Mentoring Up activities. As a seed for putting “impact” in investment in the Egyptian ecosystem, the highly anticipated networking event will witness the presence of a pool of active, well-respected investors, a variety of purpose-driven startups and other supporting organizations. It is an honor to have H.E Mr. Laurens Westhoff, the Netherlands Ambassador in Egypt, at the event who will give the opening remarks emphasizing the importance of impact investing and social entrepreneurship in Holland and Egypt. The event will also comprise a panel discussion exploring the impact investments climate and ecosystem in Egypt, additional highlights from the Mentoring Up programme as well as allowing time for the entrepreneurs and investors to meet and network.  Ahmed Bastawy, Founder and Managing Director of icealex will be, in his welcome note, highlighting...
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I-Cube presents Human-Centered Design in Nepal

I-Cube presents Human-Centered Design in Nepal

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Nepal Communitere held a 2 day Human-Centered Design masterclass for our new I-Cube business incubation program cohort of young Nepali entrepreneurs on Dec. 19th & 20th, 2017. The launch and HCD workshop was developed by DSIL Global, based in Bangkok, Thailand. SAVE the DATE: Nepal Communitere will be hosting the next Kathmandu Mini Makerfaire showcasing Humanitarian Makers to take place in Sep. 2018 - either the 22 & 23 or the 29 & 30. Let us know if you plan to be there and which dates you prefer. If you have leads on international sponsors/funders to help cover travel for global makers to share their work, let Bahar know....
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‘STARTUPS OF ALEX’ is calling all startups in Alexandria, Egypt

‘STARTUPS OF ALEX’ is calling all startups in Alexandria, Egypt

By Zen EditorNo Comments
STARTUPS OF ALEX is the 1st Alexandrian incubator launched by icealex and funded by the Academy for Scientific Research and Technology under the program of “Intilac National Incubators”. Startups of Alex aims to connect the different components of the Alexandrian startup ecosystem together, including the startups themselves, mentors, investors, partners and supporting organizations such as co-working spaces and innovation & technology hubs. We believe that Alexandrian entrepreneurs have great ideas and the capability to create their own businesses. Some of them know their way and others face some obstacles, so we gather to share knowledge and help each other. The call for the 1st incubation cycle has been launched on the 1st June, whilst the 1st cycle bootcamp and kick off shall be during the beginning of August 2017. The cycle’s duration is between 4 – 6 months; i.e. from August 2017 until January 2018.   Why Join Us? As part of our incubation program, you will be provided with all of these services,...
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