Practical experience
Landing a job takes more than talent, it takes action. Demola gives you the chance to tackle real challenges, collaborate with others, and build proof of what you can do even when things are uncertain. By actively participating in a Demola project, you can turn your skills into competencies and concrete experience.
Partnered with Innovative Companies
Our platform, created together with leading companies and professors, connects you to real-world innovation projects. You’ll work as part of a team on an innovation and development project, guided by Demola’s expert facilitators. Participating in a project will give you practical experience and the confidence to deal with complexity in any job.
At Demola, innovation projects are built around real-world project topics co-designed with companies and public-sector organisations. If selected, you'll join an innovation team working to develop meaningful solutions that respond to validated needs.
Our projects tackle complex, relevant problems grounded in industry and societal needs. You'll work in a team to design and demo solutions, benefiting from the insights and findings of previous Demola projects. Most Demola projects last around two months, but the exact duration depends on the programme they are part of.
Each team benefits from expert guidance through coaching sessions and facilitated community events. Demola's facilitators bring years of experience in innovation and adapt their support to match your ambition and commitment. You are expected to take an active role, both individually and as a team.
You'll co-create with other teams and Demola's experts, and validate and test your solutions with real stakeholders to continuously refine your approach. High-performing teams gain access to a network of professionals from Demola's industry partners for further input and exposure.
You'll build in-demand, career-ready skills in creative problem-solving, AI-assisted innovation, project management, international collaboration, and resilience - all while working in an environment that mirrors real innovation practices.
Your team owns the outcomes created during the project. Use them in job interviews, your portfolio, a Master's thesis, or even as the foundation of a startup. In some cases, your work may also earn you academic credit (ECTS) if you are a student.
The impact
Ready to turn your skills into competence? Our claims are backed by feedback from our community of participants and alumni.
Strongly agree (49.3%)
Agree (43.6%)
Neither agree or disagree (5.3%)
Disagree (1.3%)
Strongly disagree (0.5%)
2 272 people took part in the survey.
New skills
65.6%
Valuable work experience
63.9%
New friends
51.5%
Startup ideas
34.4%
International teamwork experience
30.5%
Industry contacts
23.9%
Self-esteem
23.9%
New motivation to study
22.8%
Confidence in career choices
20.3%
Researcher contacts
17.6%
Better position in the labor market
13.5%
Other
1.5%
Based on Q4/2022 survey
If you’re currently studying at or near one of our Demola locations or partner universities, you’re welcome to join a Demola project.
In our partner cities, the projects are also open to graduates and professionals who are exploring new career paths or interested in co-creating and launching startups in the future.
Many alumni have participated in more than one Demola project – the current record is seven. For active alumni, we facilitate further development in their academic studies or future careers:
Explore or fine-tune your Master’s thesis topic through a Demola project and find a potential industry collaborator for your Master’s thesis after the project.
Develop an expert profile that highlights your project contributions, as well as innovation and interpersonal skills. Top-performing participants will have their expert profiles shared and recommended within Demola’s partner network, verifying their skills and proactive mindset.
Build on your project results, connect with like-minded teammates, and use your entrepreneurial mindset to lay the groundwork for a startup.
Get onboarded with Demola
Create a Demola profile.
Browse project in your location and apply to those that interest you.
If you get selected, confirm your seat and start the teamwork.
Apply to one or more projects today!
.jpg&w=750&q=75 "Traceable Social Impact Visualisation")
Glasgow, Jyväskylä
Human Beings in the Modern World
Social impact is often hard to demonstrate in a way that is credible, comparable, and easy to understand. Many initiatives do meaningful work, but when it’s time to report results or communicate value, the evidence is scattered, the story is unclear, and impact becomes either too vague or too heavy to measure. In this project, we want to explore how to visualise impact so that it becomes traceable – from concrete actions and collaborations to outcomes – without turning it into bureaucratic reporting. What kinds of evidence are realistic to collect? And how can we present the results in a way that helps decision-making and learning, not just external reporting? The team will map typical data sources and evidence types (qualitative and quantitative) and then prototype a minimal data structure that partners can actually maintain in real life. Based on that, the team will build a simple but powerful visual concept, such as a dashboard-style view, showing what happened, why it matters, and what the evidence is. If you are interested in impact, data visualisation, storytelling, service design, or social innovation, this project is for you!
Apply by 15 Mar
Glasgow
Value Creators of Tomorrow
Supply chains underpin almost every aspect of modern life, from food and clothing to healthcare, energy and technology. In recent years, global disruptions – including pandemics, geopolitical instability and climate-related events – have exposed how vulnerable many supply chains are. At the same time, organisations face increasing pressure to improve sustainability, transparency, and ethical sourcing while maintaining efficiency and economic viability. This project challenges to explore how supply chains can be redesigned to be more resilient, responsible and future-ready. How might organisations better anticipate, absorb and respond to disruption? Could digital technologies such as data analytics, artificial intelligence or blockchain improve visibility, coordination and decision-making across complex supply networks? How can efficiency be balanced with environmental and social responsibility? What information is critical for building trust and resilience within supply chains? When considering interactions between suppliers, manufacturers, logistics providers, and consumers, where should the change start to create the biggest impact? How can risks be identified earlier and managed more effectively? What role can innovation play in reducing environmental impact while supporting long-term economic growth? The outcomes of this project could help shape how organisations, industries and governments approach supply chain strategy in an increasingly uncertain world, with relevance across multiple sectors and disciplines.
Apply by 15 Mar
Glasgow
Value Creators of Tomorrow
As sustainability expectations grow, organisations and governments are increasingly exploring circular economy models that reduce waste and extend product lifecycles. While systems such as deposit return schemes for bottles are becoming more familiar, many everyday products – clothing, electronics, household items, and others – still lack clear, trusted pathways for reuse, return or responsible disposal. This creates challenges around waste reduction, accountability, consumer behaviour and policy implementation. This project invites to explore how circular systems could be designed for everyday products at scale. How might principles such as extended producer responsibility (EPR), digital product passports or return-and-reward models be applied beyond traditional recycling schemes? Could digital tools, service design or physical infrastructure help make participation in circular systems simple, transparent and accessible for users? When considering the roles of consumers, producers, retailers, communities, and policymakers, what information needs to travel with a product throughout its lifecycle? How can trust, transparency and usability be embedded into circular systems? What incentives or experiences might encourage widespread participation without creating friction or confusion? The outcomes of this project could inform future approaches to sustainability, innovation and policy design, with relevance to local-level environmental ambitions and broader global efforts to transition toward a circular economy.
Apply by 15 Mar
Glasgow
Value Creators of Tomorrow
Creative industries are increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, as it’s nowadays used in areas such as image creation, video editing, music, writing and digital marketing. While AI tools open up new possibilities for creativity and experimentation, they also raise important questions around originality, authorship, ethics, and the role of human creativity. Many creatives are keen to explore these tools, yet unsure how to use it in ways that feel confident, responsible and genuinely useful within their own practice. This project explores AI as a creative partner rather than a replacement for human creativity. How might artists, designers, filmmakers, or content creators work with AI to enhance ideas, workflows and storytelling while maintaining their personal voice and creative integrity? How might audiences engage differently with AI-assisted creative work? Could new creative processes, platforms, or practical guidelines help creatives navigate the opportunities and challenges AI presents? AI and creativity involve many overlapping issues, including ethics, transparency, access, skills development and creative ownership. Not all aspects can be covered at once, but whichever the team chooses to focus on, the outcomes of this project could influence how future creatives learn, work and define authorship, helping to shape responsible and innovative approaches to creativity in an increasingly AI-driven landscape.
Apply by 15 Mar
Glasgow, Jyväskylä, Oulu, Prague, Riihimaki
Value Creators of Tomorrow
Modular spaces offer incredible flexibility for workshops, events, and team sessions—but in practice, they often end up cluttered, confusing, and technically unreliable. People rearrange furniture sub-optimally, AV setups break, and organizers waste time troubleshooting instead of focusing on the experience. What if a modular space assistant could guide users before, during, and after events—ensuring smooth setups, smart layouts, and effortless operations? This project explores how digital intelligence, smart environments, and user-centric design can transform modular spaces into self-organizing, intuitive environments that support both organizers and participants. How might a space assistant help users choose the optimal room layout based on event type, group size, and activities? How could it guide furniture arrangement, equipment setup, acoustics, and lighting? What support could it provide during the event—tech monitoring, live troubleshooting, facilitation tools? How could modular space UX incorporate services like catering, guidance, or real-time information?
Apply by 15 Mar
Glasgow, Jyväskylä, Oulu, Prague, Riihimaki, Tokyo
Human Beings in the Modern World
Planning and designing offices is always hard as there are so many things to take into account. Often, the poor designs are about bad acoustics, weak wireless connection coverage or unanticipated human behaviour. All of these are extremely hard to simulate without the physical space. Metaverse technologies offer us one tool to tackle this problem already in the design phase of the premises. In the virtual world, we might be able to simulate acoustics, wireless network coverage and even let people test the premises before any construction or renovation even takes place. How might we build an environment where designers and customers could play around with different layouts, design options, and host activities in the virtual world? How might we simulate occupancy, movement, noise, and collaboration patterns? Could we even compare layouts based on productivity, comfort, and space efficiency? This project focuses on building game-like metaverse environment to demonstrate above-mentioned concepts. If you are interested in space design, UX, acoustic design or metaverse technologies, this one’s for you!
Apply by 15 Mar
See how Demola has helped students around the world succeed in their careers and personal lives.
Master’s Degree student in Research and Innovation in Higher Education
Excellent
20/04/2023
“I enjoy connecting with other people who are not from the same area and field, and creating new things. I think Demola is a very great platform and, since I’m interested in education, I think this is a great idea to help students and other people to learn in a different way and to be closer to the work life.”
Master’s Student in Public and Global Health
Excellent
20/04/2023
“I joined Demola for the third time already, since I enjoy how my personal skills are developing here and I love the feeling of freedom of thoughts, to be able to think, feel and express anything.”
Master’s Student in Sustainable Digitalisation
Excellent
20/04/2023
“I wanted more experience in interdisciplinary project work and real-life, tangible development of solutions with external stakeholders. I also wanted to practice what the design process is like in the real world and how to present novel ideas in an attractive, business- oriented way. And Demola delivered!”
Master’s Degree Student in Engineering and Technology
Excellent
10/06/2022
“In Demola we focused on creating solutions that can and should be applicable and should happen in real life, concrete and implementable solutions that can have an impact. Those type of solutions that go way beyond than just making a new website or a nice social media page.”
Master of Business
Excellent
17/04/2023
“If you have successfully completed the Demola project, it is proof of your passion and that your mindset is inevitably customer-oriented. Demola is definitely an experience I can recommend to all students.”
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