FutureLab: Youth Innovation, STEM and Digital Skills Lab Launches in Dnipro

What happens when young people are given five months, a team, mentors, and a space where they can test their own ideas?

That is exactly what we want to explore through FutureLab: a youth lab for innovation, STEM and digital skills.

Rise of Ukraine is opening applications for a new educational programme for young people aged 16–22 from Dnipro and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. FutureLab is being launched as part of the Resilience and Engagement for Ukraine (REU)project, implemented by IED with financial support from the European Union.

Five months of training sessions, workshops, teamwork, individual projects and mentoring support are ahead.

What is FutureLab?

FutureLab brings together several things at once: modern digital skills, technology, idea development, teamwork, and an understanding of how to turn an initial idea into a real project step by step.

The programme will bring together 40 participants, who will study in two groups.

Over the course of the programme, they will form 8 teams and work on 8 youth-led projects of their own.

In other words, this is not a programme where you spend five months listening to lectures, receive a certificate at the end, and go your separate ways.

We will put knowledge into practice from the very beginning: analysing real-life cases, identifying issues that genuinely matter to young people and communities, developing solutions, testing them, and improving them together.

What will we learn?

There will be plenty of topics — and they will be quite diverse.

Throughout the programme, participants will work on:

• leadership, communication and teamwork;
• digital tools and the potential of artificial intelligence;
• STEM, robotics and virtual reality;
• critical, analytical and creative thinking;
• exploring the needs of young people and communities;
• generating and developing their own ideas;
• social entrepreneurship;
• project management;
• planning and implementing their own initiatives;
• developing project concepts and presenting their solutions.

The goal is not simply to learn a few more new terms.

What matters to us is that after a training session, participants can take a new tool and use it right away — in a team task, in developing their own idea, or in a project they will continue working on.

How will the programme work?

The programme will run for five months.

In-person training sessions and workshops will take place in Dnipro at:

37 Sviatoslava Khorobroho Street

Each session will last approximately 1.5 hours.

The formats will vary too: some sessions will focus more on practical exercises, while others will involve teamwork, discussions, real-life cases, or working on participants’ own assignments.

Gradually, participants will move from individual topics and skills to developing their own social and innovation projects.

What if you have an idea but don’t know what to do with it?

That is where mentoring support comes in.

After the training modules, teams will be able to work with mentors, bring their ideas and drafts, ask questions, and receive feedback.

Together, they will clarify who the project is for and what problem it aims to solve, test proposed solutions, structure the concept, and define the next steps.

So participants are not expected to have a finished project from day one.

You can come with an interesting topic, a rough idea, or simply the desire to try something new — and figure things out along the way.

How will FutureLab conclude?

At the end of the programme, teams will present their projects at the Youth Innovation Forum.

By then, each presentation will be backed by months of learning, teamwork, testing ideas, and consultations with mentors.

For participants, this will be another valuable experience: not only coming up with their own solution, but also learning how to explain it clearly to others, make a case for their idea, and present the results of their team’s work.

Who can join?

We are looking for 40 young people aged 16–22 from Dnipro and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

We welcome applications from high school students, university students, young people from communities across the oblast, including internally displaced young people and those experiencing social, economic or educational vulnerabilities, as well as those living in communities affected by the war.

You do not need to already know your way around AI, robotics or project management to take part.

Curiosity, a willingness to get involved, and a desire to go through this journey together as a team matter much more.

How to join FutureLab

Applications are now open.

You can fill out the registration form via link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd8sdl6tKN5zraoCBaHR0pYBbta7Mkt1r3j3EFzN_IFDF-OfQ/viewform

Five months are ahead — five months to try new tools, meet people with similar interests, test your ideas, and create a project that did not even exist a few months ago.

We would be very happy to take this journey together with you at Rise 💙💛

This material was produced as part of the “Resilience and Engagement for Ukraine” (REU) project, implemented by IED with financial support from the European Union. The content of this material is the sole responsibility of the Charitable Organization “Charitable Foundation ‘Rise of Ukraine’” and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or IED.