The first phase of activity was divided in two major periods.
- M1-M3: These three months were dedicated to launch the project, get the partners to know each other better, organise information processes and define the strategic approach for the operational activities to be conducted after M4.
- M4-M9: These six months were dedicated to conduct the activities as planned in all the Work packages, in a collaborative, hands-on and reflective approach.
For the Individual WPs, the progress made in this period (M1-M9) has been as follows:
- WP1: Opportunity ecosystem co-designed a bottom-up gender and innovation vision to align the whole consortium on a proactive yet realistic vision of change that shemakes.eu contributes to.
- WP2: Learning paths. After an in-depth exploration of the concept of curricula for girls and women innovators, this WP conducted quite an extensive range of activities including Minifabricademy bootcamp, Biomaterial workshop and Voodoo electronic rabbits (8-18 age group), Bootcamps, Bio-design workshops, Re-wool workshop for creatives and tech students or Robotics (18-25 age group) and Career mapping based on surveys and interviews for future innovators (25+ age group).
- WP3: Innovation services. The TCBL lab model and its innovation services were first adapted to the women innovators. Then, activities conducted in Community engagement were focused on identification of issues to be dealt with and the solutions proposed to solve them, Multi-lab projects started to explore the Re-wool project and Business engagement resulted in Challenge solving workshops or Business environment mapping.
- WP4: Reputation management. An Advisory Board of exemplary women was gathered, listened to in a first meeting and monthly conversations to inspire our targets. In parallel, the Gurus, lab partners who conduct and coach activities with our targets, were selected, and the process of selecting Ambassadors, participants that will help transferring activities, began.
- WP5: Evaluation and impact assessment introduced the theory of change and its indicators to prepare for measuring the impact of shemakes.eu at the end of the project, when it will take greater importance.
- WP6: Communication and dissemination, launched the website, the social media, and the Shemakes Voices series. WP6 also developed the communication templates to be used internally or externally.
- WP7: Project management started with a successful on-line kick-off meeting, dealt with strategic and technical guidance through progress meetings and dedicated workshops, and provided a first policy brief.
A total of 14 deliverables were Issued In the period and two milestones reached.