FAQ

A very cool place. with very cool people. a hub. a networking place. a brainstorming space. a project. events. dedicated people. a really cool place (oh, already mentioned that). a crazy team. a train. chocolate cake, ice cream and macchiatos. nirvana. a space where ideas are made real. where ideas flourish. where people work hard to develop projects that matter. a bee.

The Innovations Lab is also a space designed to improve youth participation and involvement in the life of their society. It is a space of innovations (you wouldn’t have guessed!) both technical and not where young people are encouraged to think about creative solutions to improve the life of youth and children in Kosovo.

Among the many thing the Innovations Lab is not, here are a few we could think of:
A printing or photocopy services place, a public restroom, a parking, a smoking area, a club, a bar, a social assistance office, a zoo (well, kinda), a place you just come to ask for money, a tourism agency, …

Simple. By Youth for Youth.

It is not only a fancy name for funding agency. We want you to consider us as friends and mentors before seeing us as donors.

Design Center is the other half of the Lab that embraces (open source) technology and youth expertize and enthusiasm in using it to solve institutional problems in Kosovo. We do not want to re-invent the wheel, but use the wheel to move forward and improve the life of children and youth in Kosovo. It is all about sharing, caring, leveraging the collective wisdom and ultimately serving the needs of users.

It is not a place where users of software are not at the center of attention when developing solutions. The Design Center’s aim is not to identify proprietary software and technologies to solve institutional problems. And it is certainly not a place where we do graphic design or web sites.

2.500 euros. We provide small-scale funding and you wouldn’t believe what you can achieve with this!

ANYONE between 16 and 29 years old, possessing a Kosovo ID.

We support all types of projects, from artistic to technological, all projects are welcome. We support original projects for social good, that’s the basis, the rest is up to your vision…

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere

The guiding principle of the Lab is “Innovative ideas for social good”. The Innovations Lab is interested in impactful projects which find new creative ways to tackle societal issues. However there are many aspects the review committee takes into account while reviewing the proposals:

Your project should be addressing a real issue affecting youth or children, it should be developed toward improving the life of your peers as well as building your own capacity in managing project from start to end. Voluntarism is an important component of the lab and we really want to feel that the reward of the project is the experience and the learning process you will have gone through.

Another important aspect is the inclusion of people from different backgrounds in your project. We are strongly encouraging projects involving different ethnicities, young people with disabilities, youth from different region, urban and rural. We also encourage gender balance.

The Lab is fun, young and a participative structure, we would really like to find the same spirit in the projects we help to implement.

We are open to all sort of projects and we are approaching every idea with an open mind, so we are flexible on the criteria; however, the more you stand out, the more chance your proposal will get approved.

If you have a project proposal already written down, then share it with us. If you did not use our project template we will ask you to do so, for UNICEF internal reasons.

1. You submit an electronic copy of your project proposal to the Innovations Lab (on the Lab’s email address or any contacts you were given) before the 20th of every month, or it will be considered for the next month.
2. We get back to you with comments and advice on how to improve your project and your proposal. Ideally you frequently come by the lab and work there on your proposal, talk with the team etc.
3. Once the changes made and the proposal is considered ready on your side and ours, your project will be submitted to the Innovations Review Committee (IRC) which usually takes place at the beginning of every month.
4. The IRC meets and decides to approve (with or without recommendations), reject or re-submit your project for the next month.
5. You get an email informing you of the decision of the IRC. If your project is approved, you will receive further notification to come and sign the contract. If you project is approved with recommendations we will wait to hear from you before moving forward. If your project is re-submitted, we hope to hear from you or see you at the Lab to see how to improve your project and develop a modified version to be re-submitted for the next IRC meeting. If you project is rejected, you can contact us to get extended feedback and you are encouraged to re-apply for another project.

Yes, you can. Here at the Lab we just LOVE ideas, and we love making them real. You are welcome to come with only the seed of an idea and we will help you develop it and make it grow to become a Baobab, or a a big Oak or.. well a project.

Yes, you can. If you are a student studying computer science at one of the Universities in Kosovo check out our internship possibilities here and get in touch with email: interns [AT] kosovoinnovations [DOT] org.

We currently have agreements with University of Prishtina, UBT, AAB and Iliria University which allow their students to get credits for their time spent at the Lab. Informally, the same applies to AUK.

Open Source, Open Source, Open Source. You name it, but, a few that we can name are: RapidSMS, Ushahidi, Django, Drupal, Open Street Map, Open Layers, Protovis, JavaRosa, ODK etc.

Mentorship, Guidance and some more Mentorship. Space, computers, Internet, cold water, an occasional coffee (for the hard workers) and specific equipment are just not worth mentioning, are they?!

Innovations Cafes are organized every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month, they are the occasion for ByFy project members to come and share their projects, hear new ideas and network. Informal in nature these Cafes are just a good way to chill, talk to new people and share inspiring projects and so on.

The Innovations Lab also organize events every three months to look back on what have been achieved and look forward what can be done and make the Lab known.

Other events: The Innovations Team, ByFy, YAP and Design Center are planning to expand the reach of the Lab and organise more events on different occasions and topics, from technical trainings to inspiring talks from guests, we hope to reach out to more and more young people. Kosovo Innovation Camp, Tech Talks, Digital Bootcamps, Innovative Girl's Day and Blogging Meet-up are a few of the opportunities to get involved.

A brand new Lab has opened its door in North Mitrovica, information about that will come at a latter stage.

We will soon organise a network of young people who will help the Innovations Team in Prishtina to outreach and help with projects. Currently PEN (Peer Educators Network), which is administering the Lab, is helping with outreach throughout Kosovo.

All the project which have been developed through the Lab can be seen on our web site in this page. You have the title and a short description of each projects under “By Youth for Youth-Projects” and then update about each projects under “project updates”. Team leaders write regular blogs about the implementation of their project and that should give you a good idea about the project. For more information, just contact us, we’ll be happy to give you more details or put you in touch!

In principle it is all of them. Among them, some with which we have had more frequent contacts and are already cooperating are: the National Institute of Public Health, Department of Youth at the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports, Ministry of Health, University of Prishtina.