Co‑creating and facilitating practical solutions for complex public challenges.

SmartUp – Social Innovation Lab is a non-profit based in Skopje, North Macedonia. We work with institutions, communities, and partners to co‑create, facilitate, and implement practical responses to complex public challenges.

Our work combines facilitation, co‑creation, digital tools, and programme delivery to help ideas move into tested practice. Since 2014, we have worked across North Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia.

Based in: Skopje, North Macedonia
Founded: 2014
Regional footprint: 5 countries
Approach: Human-centred design

SmartUp facilitators and partners working through a challenge together at a workshop table

What makes us different

Four commitments shape how we work, from the first conversation to a solution operating in the real world.

Young participants joining hands at the centre of a co‑creation workshop

01
Co‑creation at the core
We design with the people a challenge affects, not for them. Institutions, educators, young people, citizens, and local partners help shape solutions from the start.
02
Context-led decision-making
Our work is grounded in context, stakeholder insight, and practical learning. We use evidence to inform decisions without designing from assumption alone.
03
From ideas to implementation
We turn ideas into pilots, tools, platforms, programmes, and policies that can be tested, improved, and used in practice.
04
Bridging sectors
We connect public institutions, civil society, academia, business, and international partners around shared challenges and practical collaboration.

How we work

Our methodology is grounded in human-centred design, adapted to local context, institutional realities, and the people involved.

That is why we describe our approach as a custom-designed process rather than a fixed model.

Depending on the challenge, our work can include facilitation, co‑creation, pilots, digital tools, programme delivery, learning, and supporting research. The aim is not only to generate ideas, but to help partners move toward responses that are workable, relevant, and sustainable.

Where this shows up