Finnish co-creation platform on education enters in Nepal

Kathmandu, Aug 14:

Demola, a Finland-based global innovation challenge platform, has entered Nepal through a partnership with King’s College.

A formal ceremony was organised in  the Capital to mark the launch of the platform in Nepal.

Annapurna Media Network, Young Innovations, 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. 

“We see Demola as a tool capable of stitching an existing gap between Nepali education institutions and companies as well as government and non-government organisations," Narottam Aryal, President of King’s College, said.

“Being a globally recognised 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 organisations. 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: Demola Facilitators and Universities.

While Demola Facilitators will bring about the global knowledge and insights in solving a particular problem of a company or helping in advance with the introduction of innovation; the University will try to apply the tested and proven academic theories, to help Nepali businesses and organisations reach further heights. 

Kati Bhose, Head of Cooperation, Counselor at the Finnish Embassy in 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 said, “To solve such problems , it takes a new set of thinking which is only possible by the collaboration between the universities and the industrial sector.”

Pekka Silvén, Vice President of Demola Global, said that the agreement provided ways to strengthen international networks and bring co-creation tools to Nepali companies and society.

Demola innovation challenges have already brought together over 50 universities, 750,000 students and the leading companies from around the world.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 15 August 2019.