Closing the NewGenerationSkills project

On 30th June the two-and-half year long international cooperation of the NewGenerationSkills project will come to an end. To celebrate the results and progress of the past years we organised a final event on 4th June. The project was aimed at making better use of the entrepreneurial and innovative capacities of young people.

In the NewGenerationSkills project 12 partners from 7 different countries have been working together in the framework of NewGenerationSkills to upgrade the cooperation of the local actors. With establishing the so-called Innovation Labs in each country, the aim was to create innovative local support schemes going beyond existing fragmented initiatives. Additionally, through the unique Dynamic Learning Package (DLP) developed by the partners, the youth became skilled to generate new ideas and take the first steps towards social innovation. This youth focused innovation supporting process has ultimately led to better economic performance, lower brain drain and had a positive impact on the quality of the local working environment.

Marius-Valentin Niculae, Representative of Joint Secretariat, Danube Transnational Programme, opened the event and in his speech he said, that NewGenerationSkills is the only project, supported by Interreg Program, where a municipality is involved as the lead partner, and it is a unique programme targeting the 15-26-year-old youth. However, in case of EU-supported projects, the emphasis on young entrepreneurs and startup initiatives will be maintained at least for ten years, so the NGS project, now closed, will not stop, but move forward with more local activities. Niculae highlighted the importance of continuity in managing young people, stressing that municipalities have an important role in maintaining the knowledge gained through the project and to reach other interested youngsters we have to cross the local level and develop a level of international exchange of experience.

During the event, a startup contest was introduced with the participation of young people arriving from the Danube region. The teams represented Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia and Hungary. The 12 teams presented their startup ideas in 5 minute presentations. Following that the jury asked some questions to learn more about each presented idea and how to implement them, in order to make the winner selection more comprehensive.

Members of the jury: László Bacsa, leader of the Hungarian DEMOLA program and coordinator of the East-European region, founder of the BME Innovation Lab and incubator, next to this he takes part in many startup developments and works as a coach and mentor.

László Boa, who is a consultant with a developer background, architect. He works at IBM and has been supporting customers and development companies in designing and implementing innovative solutions since 2009. He has been designing and implementing artificial intelligence solutions since 2016.

György Dede, currently the manager of Start it @K&H, a startup incubator project, developed by K&H bank, and is involved in some innovation projects of the Strategic Management Department.

Péter Dietrich has been working with startups for 10 years. He has been a part of the Hiventures team since its foundation, as a senior investment manager his job is to recruit new clients and develop his existing portfolio.

László Jónás is the development manager of Design Terminal, where he is responsible for corporate partners and international expansion.

On behalf of foreign partners, the president of the jury, Natalija Žunko, was from the Slovenian PRIZMA Foundation. Their activities are primarily career planning, self-employment, lifelong learning, mentoring, development of competences and skills, the also provide training and coaching for the redundant workers and the unemployed.

From Hungary 6 teams took part in the competition: DieTrend, FlatMate, HomeFencing, DiabTrend, Meestory és Dual Pro, from Slovenia (Maribor) the FEJS(T)SPEJS team, from Austria (Graz) the YIA - Young Innovation Austria/Youth in Action, from Bulgaria (Sofia) the AiSolvers, from the Czech Republic (Liberec)  the C-Cube, from Serbia (Belgrade) the Local A Box, and from Romania (Cluj) the Cluj Team.

From the 12 teams the 4 best were chosen and awarded:

1st place: HomeFencing, Hungary. The team wants to develop an app for professional and amateur fencers. Wireless solution to count scores.

2nd place: Local A Box, Serbia. The team wants to develop an app to create local communities, where everyone is welcome and can experience something new, share their talents, and fill their day with learning and socializing.

3rd place: YIA, Austria. The team with the youngest entrepreneurs developed a GPS based under-skin chip technology to help older people check their blood pressure, and want to launch the eco-packaged “Veggie” groceries.

Audience winner: Cluj Team, Romania. The team wants to develop a system in office areas for workers to find relaxing and stress relieving activities before, after or during the workdays.

With the Closing Event, the NewGenerationSkills project reached an end, but the development and the support of young entrepreneurs will not stop in any of the participating countries. The municipalities and partners will continue on a local level to help youngsters manifest their creative ideas. Now the teams, with the knowledge gained in the programme, have the chance to turn their plans into reality. In the Innovation Labs and creative spaces, created during the project, we continue to welcome new generations of enthusiastic individuals, who are interested in starting their own business.

A project film which introduces the main idea of the project, is available on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ze5v0P36fw

An informational brochure was also made which is available at https://we.tl/t-229GZbKzu9.