Kathmandu – Demola, a Finland-based global innovation challenge platform, has entered Nepal through a partnership with King’s College. Today, a formal ceremony was organized in Kathmandu to mark the launch.
During the event, five different institutions including Annapurna Media Network, YoungInnovations, City Planning Commission of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Katha Nepal and M&S NEXT Venture Corp signed the agreement to join Demola as the Challenge Partners.
“King’s as an academic institute, has always believed that learning should not be limited to the concrete classrooms and prescribed syllabi,” NarottamAryal, the Presidentof King’s College says, “We see Demola as a tool capable of stitching an existing gap between Nepalese education institutions and companies as well as government and non-government organizations.
“Being a globally recognized Finnish co-creation platform, we expect Demola’s concept to nudge forward the culture of joint problem-solving in Nepal”.
Demola facilitates eight-week long projects where students and company experts work jointly on an innovation challenge, as set by the company as well as organizations. The collaboration will take place from problem identification phase to solution development phase.
According to the College, there are two additional elements to the Demola Project: DemolaFacilitators and Universities.
While DemolaFacilitators will bring about the global knowledge and insights in solving a particular problem of a company/organizations or helping them advance with the introduction of innovation, the University will try to apply the tested and proven academic theories, to help Nepali businesses and organizations reach further heights.
Addressing the launch event, Kati Bhose, Head of Cooperation, Counsellor, Finnish Embassy to Nepal stressed on education based research for solving modern time problems especially those faced by the industrial world. “The new changes that are surfacing in the world has not only been impacting the industries but the entire social environment,” she states, “To solve such problems , it takes a new set of thinking which is only possible by the collaboration between universities and the industrial sector.”
“We are proud to welcome King’s College to our Demola alliance. With this agreement, we have the capability to strengthen international networks and bring co-creation tools to Nepalese companies and society,” says PekkaSilvén, Vice President of Demola Global.
“Demola invites companies as well as organizations and students to work jointly on their problems starting from problem identification to solution development. While doing so, academia gradually earns the trust of companies and brings them closer, and companies realize the potential of students even before they graduate.
The learnings and insights during the process will be an invaluable repository of knowledge and information for Nepalese academia and industries/organizations,” says UdgumKhadka, Educational Designer of King’s College.
Demola innovation challenges have already brought together over 50 universities, 750,000 students and the leading companies from around the world. Currently, it operates in 16 countries: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Portugal, Mexico, Namibia, South Africa, Japan and China. Nepal being the 17th country to introduce Demola concept.
Demola operates as a continuous process facilitating 4 sessions of innovation challenges in a given year. Therefore interested Nepali companies and organizations have several opportunities to join the Demola in the near future.
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