SPARK Projects

The project involved educating children and young people in robotics and mobile programming. Ten robotics kits have been donated to schools, and training courses have been held at SPARK on the development of Arduino and the development of mobile robot control applications. The project is supported by the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports.

With the help of Raiffeisen Bank, SPARK School has launched a project of the interesting name RoboMobo, to inspire children and teenagers to start engaging in educational extracurricular activities that will benefit them - in this case robotics and programming. The activities we carried out as part of the project were to assign Arduino robotics kits to selected secondary schools in Mostar, and then educated interested students on developing robot control applications using Arduino.

This project provided new equipment necessary for young people to develop their ideas through a startup program. With the modern equipment and knowledge that young people can acquire at SPARK through free workshops or by working at one of the SPARK startups, we want to encourage young people to create jobs themselves. The startup applications were open all the time because we wanted to encourage young people to try to realize their ideas and to start entrepreneurial steps. The startup program lasted for six months and during that period all members of the startup were provided with full technical and business support. After six months, startups were ready to start their own businesses, but also open up employment opportunities for other young people. The project is supported by FMRPO.

The goal of this project is to support SPARK as a partner by donors in a gender intervention equality and social equality in the ICT sector, in awareness activities and promoting various HR practices and expanding the support network for women in the IT sector. The focus of the collaboration is threefold: encouraging changes and additions to HR practices in private sector companies; organizing a hackathon with as many female participants as possible, and mentoring and counseling services for female students at the hackathon. The project was supported by Market Makers.

Through this project, SPARK School has established a collaboration with two elementary schools in Mostar, donated one set of mBot robots and presented online training that they can apply in teaching. Equipment was also purchased and later presented to children and young people at various events to motivate them for STEM occupations. The project is supported by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

SPARKreators is a project through that SPARK school, with the help of its partners, donates mBot robots and additional equipment to primary schools throughout BiH. In this competition, 360 elementary schools have the right to participate. The project is supported by the American Embassy in BiH.

With the help of this project, SPARK has further equipped its premises with a state-of-the-art 3D printer available for use by students and research staff. SPARK has provided additional education with advanced equipment and practical knowledge for a minimum of 30 young people (20 through workshops and 10 through prototyping) who are unable to acquire it in the formal educational institutions. Increasing cooperation with schools and colleges is reflected in facilitating hands-on teaching by organizing a workshop called "3D Printing Basics". The workshop was held by experts in the modernly equipped SPARK premises The project is supported by FMRPO.

Through this project, 20 schools across BiH received 200 educational robots. 20 teachers and 200 female students have acquired programming and robotics skills, for which a robotics league and competition was organized. The aim is to promote STEM occupations among girls, who are a minority to boys when it comes to these occupations. The project is supported by the US Embassy in BiH.

The “21st-Century Education for 21st-Century Career” project helped at least 1300 young unemployed people in Mostar and surrounding area to get knowledge, skills and experience for their future careers. During the project implementation, three educational events including 13 workshops were organized. The project is supported by the American Embassy in BiH.

With this project, SPARK's better infrastructure is built and space is adapted to work with a large number of young people working to develop their idea. Due to the establishment of new companies within the accelerator and expansion of the SPARK team, it was necessary to make certain adjustments to the existing space in order for the employees to get a part of the private space and to work smoothly. A large number of events organized at SPARK, with the aim of supporting the local community and stimulating youth entrepreneurship, impede people working. The project is supported by FMRPO.

The goals of this project were to prepare young entrepreneurs for what awaits them in the real business world by developing a game for startups under the name Play, Learn and Earn, and to share knowledge and experience between SPARK and startup accelerators from the United Kingdom. The project was supported by the British Council.

The goal of this project is to promote entrepreneurship and provide an opportunity for young people to develop their new ideas through a new generation of SPARK startups and, at the end of the acceleration process, to start a new business and to encourage job creation in young and innovative businesses. The stated goal was achieved through these activities: organizing the next generation of SPARK startups, organizing the Startup Europe Week event, organizing the European Makers Week event, and sending SPARK startups to an international conference. The project was supported by the Ministry of Economy of Herzegovina-Neretva County.

This project is a regional-level initiative aimed at providing innovative cross-sectoral approaches and providing young unemployed citizens of the Western Balkans with an opportunity to increase employability. The project is supported by KULT in B&H.

The goal of this project is to strengthen ecosystem organizations in the region and to offer better framework conditions for startups and their successful development. The project is supported by GIZ.

MY-GATEWAY implemented by Europa Media is an initiative created by experts that are passionate about improving the startup scene in Europe who, together with the support of Startup Europe, will help high-tech start-ups and promising SMEs in Romania, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic to grow and scale up on a pan-European level. MY-GATEWAY developed its strategy based on 4 main pillars: access to networks, access to finance, access to talents and capacity building. SPARK is the only representative of BiH.

The project donated IT equipment and an equipped IT classroom at the Center for Social Work in Mostar, which can be used in the long term to train the Center's residents to work in the IT environment, and to facilitate segregation into modern society and the labor market. For the Center's 18 residents (primary school children), a 20-hour workshop was held covering the basics of computer science, programming and robotics. The project is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Science.

Arduino Most supported by US Embassy in BiH is a project that aims to bring together students from these “two-schools-under-one-roof” and connect students of different nationalities to learn together about electronics and programming, amid explorations of pacifism, reconciliation, mutual understanding, and personal growth. Through the project, students had the opportunity to work with Arduino electronic components and acquire knowledge and skills from STEM areas.

The Festival of Innovation consisted of four different events that took place in one week: Next Innovation Hackathon, SMART Culture Workshop, Next Startup x BETAPITCH Competition, and Next Thing Conference. This is the first such event in our region where over 250 competitors, speakers, lecturers, and visitors have met and got an insight into the regional startups and modern IT companies; and listened to panel discussions with participants from other incubators and accelerators, as well as with employees of the City of Mostar. The project is supported by the City of Mostar.

The project enabled 140 young people to gain the programming skills they need to become more competitive in the job market. The project aimed to reduce the gap between formal education and the real sector, to enable young people to acquire IT and business skills and priorities that are in the labor market, and to promote the IT sector as one of the most widespread and applicable sectors in the world. The project is supported by the Federal Ministry of Development, Entrepreneurship, and Crafts.

The project enabled the employment of a young unemployed person and the acquisition of their first working experience as a project assistant. Other project activities included the organization of 15 IT workshops in various fields, Java Bootcamp and two Tech Meetups, which allowed more than 350 young people to gain new knowledge and skills, which will enable them to become employed more easily. Through this project, the SPARK school classroom is equipped with 13 new computers, which will serve for all future activities and workshops. The project is supported by the US Embassy in BiH.

With this project, SPARK was provided with new recording equipment to bring entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial topics closer to all young people across BiH with SPARK Talks. Recent research shows that young people spend more time on the Internet and YouTube than watching TV, which is a great reference for launching the SPARK Talks YouTube show. In addition to supplying equipment for SPARK Talks, SPARK has organized and funded many entrepreneurship-related activities as part of this project, such as workshops, lectures, hackathons, conferences, meetups, etc. The project is supported by FMRPO.

The goal of this project is to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem for tech startups in the Western Balkans. This is achieved by institutionalizing regional exchange and working with selected EFSE DF partners. Regional pre-acceleration program increased capacity through a comprehensive, standardized regional approach in startup selection, content development and methodologies for startup success. The project is supported by EFSE DF.