As the new year begins, the Living Labs within our project are reactivating after the Christmas break.
The Croatian team was the first to do so, seizing this initial meeting of the year to maintain direct contact with local stakeholders. See the meeting agenda here.
The Croatian Living Lab has set itself the task of holding the majority of Living Lab meetings in the local communities of the innovators involved in the project. Thus, on 24 January, 2025, the Living Lab meeting took place in Gospić, where Marijana Svetić, who was recently introduced on the project website https://www.grassceiling.eu/marijana-svetic-croatia-livinglab/ , comes from. The meeting with stakeholders was particularly successful, primarily due to the great interest of local stakeholders in the project and then also due to their active participation in the workshop. It was noted that the progress made over the last two decades is remarkable, but there are still many problems in the Lika region that need to be worked on to improve the status of women, especially in the areas of infrastructure, economy, politics and family. Rural poverty and the needs of the elderly population, especially older women, as well as the digital divide and the lack of microfinance were particularly highlighted. Some of the services that are lacking in the rural region of Lika are kindergartens, facilities for the elderly, microfinance for small crafts, businesses and family farms, more accessible public transportation and fast network signals.
Representatives from Lika-Senj County Development Centre (the host), The Croatian Chamber of Economy, the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, the Croatian Employment Service (Gospić branch), the Association GTF-Initiative for Sustainable Growth, City of Gospić, Polytechnic “Nikola Tesla”, LAG Lika and Lika-Senj County itself, had the opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of the Grass Ceiling project and, more specifically, how it is impacting rural Croatia through the group of women entrepreneurs participating in it.
Professor Nataša Bokan from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zagreb was responsible for presenting the project’s content and the Living Lab methodology being implemented in various parts of the country.
Innovation training took place in the afternoon session, focusing on the testing phase of the innovation process as part of the design thinking methodology. In an open discussion, the innovators shared their experiences of testing their products with the customers. The innovators reported that they received constructive critical feedback with new perspectives on their products or approach. The final session was an open discussion about the overall innovation process and their own progress (personal and business) that they have made so far in the Grass Ceiling project. The most important outcome for them is support and networking. In second place is learning about the innovation process and realising that their own perspective is not enough and how important it is to talk to others and incorporate their opinions into their own ideas/projects.
This meeting spanned over two days and included, among other activities, a visit to the Nikola Tesla Memorial Center. The gathering also served as an opportunity to share with all the women participating in the project the results of the 2nd showcase event, which took place in late November 2024 in Vilnius (Lithuania) and was attended by Ines Dundović.

