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!
Groningen
Human Beings in the Modern World
In Blue Zones, healthy living is rarely a solo effort. People have a “right tribe” — a small social circle that makes good habits feel normal and enjoyable. In many modern cities, citizens can be surrounded by people and still feel isolated. Without supportive social routines, healthy intentions turn into short-lived self-improvement attempts.In this project, we explore how to help citizens live more like Blue Zones by forming small, welcoming communities that sustain everyday wellbeing. How might we make it easy to join a low-pressure group around simple rituals like walking, shared meals, hobbies, or local volunteering? What makes a community feel safe, inclusive, and durable?The team will interview and test with citizens and prototype models for “micro-tribes”: matching ideas, onboarding flows, facilitation scripts, and recurring rituals that keep groups alive. The team may build a simple digital layer (optional) — but the focus is on real-life belonging that changes routines over time.If you are interested in community design, social innovation, service design, inclusion, or building pilots with citizens, this project is for you!
Apply by 27 Mar
Groningen
Human Beings in the Modern World
Blue Zone communities often have daily ways to “downshift” — habits that reduce stress and help the body recover. In modern life, many citizens live in constant activation: notifications, time pressure, fragmented attention, and a lack of recovery rituals. Even when people know stress is harmful, it’s hard to change without support from routines and surroundings.In this project, we explore how citizens can live more like Blue Zones by embedding small recovery moments into everyday life. What short, repeatable downshift rituals work for different types of people? And how could public spaces, services, or community practices make stress recovery normal — not something you only do on vacation?The team will co-create with citizens to identify stress hotspots (morning rush, transitions between work and home, evenings, social overload) and prototype 5–10 minute downshift routines that are easy to adopt. The team may also build concepts like a “downshift map” of calming routes and places, a community ritual series, or simple prompts integrated into daily touchpoints.If you are interested in wellbeing, mental recovery, service design, community building, or designing for healthier routines, this project is for you!
Apply by 27 Mar
Budapest
Value Creators of Tomorrow
Cashless, platform-driven commerce has dramatically lowered the barrier to running a micro-business — but banking infrastructure for these users has not kept up. Creators, freelancers, gig workers, and small-scale e-commerce sellers operate financially like businesses, yet they are poorly served by both consumer and corporate banking products. Their income is irregular, their financial needs are entangled with the platforms they work on, and traditional bank products were built for neither. Meanwhile, BigTech platforms in e-commerce, delivery, and the creator economy are already filling the vacuum — offering credit, BNPL, and revenue-based advances directly to micro-entrepreneurs, bypassing banks and capturing the primary financial relationship.What specific financial pain points do micro-entrepreneurs face that existing bank products fail to address — and where is BigTech already filling the gap? How could a bank design a product that combines personal and business finance in a way that fits irregular, platform-driven income flows? What would it take for a bank to remain the primary financial relationship for a creator or gig worker — and how can its regulated status and institutional trust become a competitive asset rather than a liability against faster-moving platform finance?In this project, we are looking for concepts that explore what a bank built for the one-person business could look like — one that meets micro-entrepreneurs where they already work.
Apply by 11 Apr
Budapest
Value Creators of Tomorrow
Retail banking customers have more choice and transparency than ever — yet satisfaction with banking services is not improving. Instead, digitally active consumers are growing fatigued by complexity: multiple apps, multi-step authentication, and the cognitive load of managing fragmented financial products. The gap is not in information or options. It is in action. Customers want financial outcomes — save more, pay less, switch better — without the effort of achieving them. AI agents now make it plausible for a bank to close that gap: acting on a customer's behalf before they even formulate a request.Which everyday financial decisions — savings allocation, subscription cancellation, loan refinancing — are customers most willing to delegate to an AI agent, and where do they draw the line on trust? How should proactive, agent-driven banking be designed to feel safe, transparent, and reversible rather than a loss of control? What data signals and permission models would make delegated financial action viable within EU regulatory frameworks?In this project we are looking for concepts that explore what a proactive banking experience could look and feel like — where the bank initiates beneficial actions on the customer's behalf rather than waiting to be asked.
Apply by 11 Apr
Budapest
Value Creators of Tomorrow
Banking is increasingly moving out of bank-owned apps and into the platforms where people and businesses actually spend their time — e-commerce tools, logistics dashboards, HR software, real estate portals. For SMEs and micro-entrepreneurs, financial services fragmented across multiple providers create constant context-switching: jumping between operational tools and separate banking apps just to handle payments, invoicing, credit, and cash flow. The most disruptive opportunity in financial services isn't a better bank app — it's making banking invisible inside the workflows where these users already operate.In which non-banking digital platforms do SMEs most urgently need financial capabilities embedded, and what would those capabilities actually look like in context? How can a bank design and deliver API-based financial services that feel native to a partner platform rather than bolted on? What value exchange model makes embedded banking work for platform operators, end-users, and the bank alike?In this project, we are looking for demos and prototypes that explore how banking functionality can be seamlessly integrated into non-financial platforms serving SMEs and self-employed individuals.
Apply by 11 Apr
Budapest, Jyväskylä, Oulu
Human Beings in the Modern World
How can mobile and XR experiences reveal what is happening right now and in the next few hours around you? Everyday urban life is full of small moments, shifting rhythms, and emerging possibilities that often go unnoticed. This project invites participants to imagine a near future where cities quietly communicate with their citizens through mobile and XR experiences woven into daily routines. The challenge is to explore how extended reality can make the present and the immediate future visible in subtle, meaningful ways. Events about to begin, places filling with energy, moments of calm or movement, and collective urban moods could appear as digital layers in the city, transforming ordinary walks into moments of discovery. The focus is on speculative, experience-driven design rather than utility alone. How might everyday life feel if the city itself could whisper what is unfolding nearby? How could digital presence enhance awareness, curiosity, and connection without overwhelming attention? The outcomes may include futuristic concepts, XR experiences, narrative environments, or prototypes that explore a city that feels alive, anticipatory, and emotionally aware a city that reveals itself moment by moment.
Apply by 11 Apr
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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