NPA KET

There are Makerspaces / Fablab activities in every area of the NPA region. This renders our project relevant to many stakeholders.

Many Makerspaces have an educational objective. Makerspaces are used right throughout the educational cycle from children through to adults.

The shortage of proficient maker scientists and engineers beholds us to further develop this human resource value chain for NPA region.

In remote areas of the NPA, the  Makerspaces claim to serve two purposes;  education and innovation. 

While many Makerspaces and FabLabs attain an innovative potential through being very creative, there is an opportunity to further support these centres with greater technology, know-how and encouragement. 

A comparison of technologies in Makerspaces located in the NPA Universities suggest that they are not significantly different to those facilities that are contained in Schools. While the expertise of more experienced users may be superior, efforts are required to incorporate new facilities and greater ambition for their use in Universities. 

A review of Makerspaces in regions, beyond the NPA, showed much greater technical resources available in those Makerspaces in Universities in the USA and in parts of Sweden. Similarly the operational philosophy of these larger makerspaces was also considered an important differentiator. 

The presence of Key Enabling Technologies is very strong in the research activities at Higher Educational Institutes, across the NPA, but KETs do not appear to percolate through to Makerspaces at Universities. A simple step of including an electronic functionality for prototyping activities could address this position in a full project.