African European Maker Innovation Ecosystem

Project Information

mAkE

Grant agreement ID: 101016858

DOI

10.3030/101016858

Project closed

EC signature date 9 December 2021

Start date 1 February 2022

End date 31 January 2025

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 1 999 562,50

EU contribution

€ 1 999 562,50

Coordinated by

ZENTRUM FUR SOZIALE INNOVATION GMBH
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - mAkE (African European Maker Innovation Ecosystem)

Reporting period: 2023-08-01 to 2025-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The mAkE project focused on fostering innovation, sustainability, and socio-economic growth through makerspaces that function as Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in Africa and Europe. In three years, the initiative made significant strides in supporting entrepreneurship, capacity building, and sustainable practices in these DIHs while establishing makerspaces as vital components of local and global innovation ecosystems. Despite challenges, including visa restrictions for African participants that hindered international collaboration, the project demonstrated the power of community-driven solutions and tailored interventions. It revealed critical gaps in financial literacy, entrepreneurship support, and policy integration, which were addressed through targeted programmes and resources. The tools, resources, and networks established through this initiative stand as a model for empowering makerspaces/DIHs worldwide, driving inclusive innovation and resilience in local and global economies.

The integration of community voices throughout the project ensured that mAkE’s tools and frameworks are highly relevant, and at the same time adaptable to diverse cultural and operational contexts. The mAkE project leaves a legacy as a catalyst for sustainable innovation and socioeconomic development. To ensure the long-term impact of the mAkE project, it is recommended that policy makers and stakeholders institutionalise its outputs by embedding them into local and regional innovation strategies. Governments should recognise and support makerspaces as essential components of innovation ecosystems, integrating them into education, economic development, and sustainability agendas. Additionally, ongoing funding mechanisms, including public-private partnerships and international grants, should be cultivated to provide financial stability for makerspaces. Finally, establishing monitoring and evaluation frameworks will help track the effectiveness of these initiatives, allowing for the continued refinement of resources and their alignment to evolving community needs. Through these efforts, the transformative impact of the mAkE project can be amplified, ensuring that its legacy endures and continues to benefit communities worldwide.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The mAkE project aimed to address challenges faced by makerspaces, focusing on financial sustainability, regulation, policy, education, culture, infrastructure, and market access. Support was provided to startups and SMEs through a comprehensive venture-building program, delivering 130+ hours of personalized coaching to 20 startups. This included guidance on business models, financial strategies, and marketing. The Venture Building Handbook, available in English and French, became an essential resource for makerspace managers and entrepreneurs, transforming ideas into scalable businesses. Another key resource, the Open Catalogue of Business Models (OCBM), co-created with 350 stakeholders, offers adaptable business models and is already adopted by 10+ makerspaces.

The Makers-in-Residency (MiR) Programme fostered cross-cultural collaboration between African and European makers through knowledge-sharing and co-creation, building networks and enhancing skills. Meanwhile, mAkE engaged 69 stakeholders to co-develop a Common Policy Agenda, disseminating it to local, national, and international policymakers to advocate for the recognition of makerspaces as critical infrastructure.

The Open Makerspace Toolkit (OMT) provides guidance on setting up inclusive makerspaces and managing stakeholder relationships. The accompanying Training-of-Trainers (ToT) program established a network of 70 trainers who cascade their knowledge across the maker ecosystem. The mAkE Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) further expands learning opportunities, incorporating resources like the OCBM, Venture Building Handbook, and Common Policy Agenda.

Distributed Manufacturing (DM) innovations include a Maker Passport system prototype for mutual recognition of skills, the Map of Machinery, cataloging 10,300+ manufacturing resources, and a digital contracting system trialed by 90 users. These initiatives highlight the potential of DM to boost local production and skills recognition.

The project explored alternative financing, helping makerspaces access crowdfunding, corporate sponsorships, and community-backed models to overcome traditional funding gaps. Over 500 businesses and stakeholders engaged through workshops and events, fostering lasting partnerships, including the Global Innovation Gathering and African Makerspace Ecosystem, ensuring ongoing impact.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The mAkE project has co-created and iteratively shaped an important number of resources, products and methods to support makerspaces and DIHs in running their businesses more sustainably and successfully. The strong engagement of the makerspace eco-system in the co-creation process helped us to elicit the needs and requirements of the involved stakeholders and iteratively shape the mAkE outputs accordingly. mAkE resources like the Open Catalogue of Business Models, the Venture Building handbook and programme, or the Policy recommendations have successfully responded to these needs. Voices from the community confirm the great impact, which resulted in new business models that were successfully implemented, in venture capital that was successfully acquired, in sustainable relationships with other founders, investors or policy makers that were established.

mAkE developed critical technology to be used by makerspaces to ease the path towards distributed, local manufacturing. The project started the important dialog on how to document makers’ skills and competencies across different continents and how to proceed with the very complex issue of distributed productions. The result of these discussions fed the iterative development of the technical mAkE infrastructure, but most importantly attracted major players to continue the work on distributed manufacturing.

mAkE strongly impacted the establishment of a makerspace community in Africa and influenced their self-understanding in which potential directions they could grow - e.g. becoming local manufacturers or establishing links to policy makers. The final event of the mAkE project attracted over 70 makers from Africa and Europe, attaining sessions focused on fostering deeper connections between African and European DIH/makerspace community members toward sustaining mAkE. Also, the makerspace track at the Afrilabs Gathering in November 2024 demonstrates the strong self-perception of makerspaces as being important innovation centres on the African continent. The feedback of participants from the diverse many mAkE events shows that these encounters, trainings, discussions, and matchmaking activities had a huge impact on individual makers, makerspaces and their communities. From European makerspaces we heard that they perceive it as a highly important and impactful contribution of mAkE, that makerspaces are officially seen as digital innovation hubs now.

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