Description
Acronym: MILL
Full title: Maputo Living Lab
Duration: 2011 to 2014
Total costs: Euro 800,000
PAT contribution: Euro 800,000
Host institution: Bruno Kessler Foundation
Project manager: Adolfo Villafiorita , Fondazione Bruno Kessler
Other participants:
- Ministry of Science and Technology of Mozambique
- Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique)
- University of Trento
- Trentino as a Lab
Thematic area : ICT4D (Information technology for social and economic development)
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Project objectives
The objective of the Maputo Living Lab is the creation of an ICT4D innovation centre in Maputo (Mozambique), where research and development in information technology is aimed at fostering social and economic development in the area. Research and development are conducted with innovation actors from Mozambique and Italy, including the Eduardo Mondlane University, the Ministry of Science and Education of Mozambique, the ICT4G group of the Bruno Kessler Foundation, the University of Trento, and national, regional and European Living Labs. The main actions of the project include the creation of an innovation lab in Maputo, scholarships and mobility between Trento and Maputo, in order to foster the mixing of ideas and skills, training in IT (and, in particular, in web and mobile development) and project incubation.
The project represents a new way of doing cooperation, where the focus is on technology and higher education as a tool to foster the development of a country.
State of the art and improvements introduced by the project
MLL has developed an innovation chain based on training, mobility and incubation, with the aim of simplifying the process of transferring ideas to the market. Training and mentoring provided by Italian staff in presence and remotely helped to improve the skills of the students involved in the project and to implement various systems and projects.
Work organisation
The team was composed of Mozambican and Italian staff from the participating institutions and the project was managed according to the PMBOK standard.
The participation of the Mozambique government's Ministry of Science and Technology and Living Lab Trentino helped to involve various local actors from the private and public sectors, as well as the third sector. The World Bank, in particular, financed the development of the SAMo project (see below).
Results achieved
- Four summer schools with hands-on training in web development technologies, each lasting one month, took place in Maputo and were hosted by the Maputo Living Lab. The schools trained about a hundred students.
- Various hackathons (programming marathons) were organised by the project in parallel in Italy and Mozambique, with 'mixed' teams collaborating to develop common solutions using the Internet. Some of the hackathons were held in the context of the RHoK (Random Hacks of Kindness) initiative; all the hackathons had as a common theme the development of ICT4D solutions. Some of the prototypes developed during the hackathons were subsequently incubated.
- Mobility grants allowed several Mozambican students to spend training periods in Italy, where they attended courses at the University of Trento and, in some cases, worked in research and development groups at the Bruno Kessler Foundation and other institutions.
- Eight scientific publications at international conferences and journals.
- The MLL managed the SAMo project, which led to the development of a software platform for collecting procurement metrics and assessing the status of primary schools in the Moamba area (Mozambique)
- The MLL managed the eUNIPRO project, which developed a prototype student management information system at the Eduardo Mondlane University.
Expected impact
Mozambique's Ministry of Science and Technology, the Italian Cooperation and Eduardo Mondlane University, in collaboration and in agreement with the other Italian actors in the project are bringing the model up to speed. The inauguration of the new innovation laboratory at the Eduardo Mondlane University based on the MLL experience is planned for 7/11/2017.
Last updated July 2017