The Fund for Innovation and Technology Development today announced a new challenge “Smart School Management: An Integrated Approach to Sustainability” through which innovative solutions are sought for the implementation of smart systems for controlling school lighting in high schools and student dormitories in four municipalities of the North-Eastern Planning Region: Kumanovo, Kriva Palanka, Kratovo and Lipkovo. This challenge is realized by Fund for Innovation and Technology Development in partnership with the Ministry of Local Self-Government (MLS) and cooperation with the Swiss Embassy in the Republic of North Macedonia to support the project “Sustainable and Inclusive Balanced Development – Phase 2”.
By implementing a smart system from the offered solutions, a complete overview of lights and energy consumption is expected through automation of the entire process, reduction of energy consumption, improvement of efficiency in operation and creation of conditions through reduction of CO2 and development of smart school management.
Schools in which the smart digital solution should be carried out and implemented in the North-Eastern planning region are: “Goce Delchev”-Kumanovo; “Pero Nakov” – Kumanovo; “Nace Budjoni” – Kumanovo; “Kiro Burnaz” – Kumanovo; “Gjorche Petrov” – Kriva Palanka; “Mitko Penjukliski” – Kratovo; “Ismet Jashari”-Lipkovo and Student Dormitory “Prof. Mijalković”-Kumanovo, Student Dormitory “Mitko Penjukliski”-Kratovo.
This challenge is expected to receive projects that include the development of innovative products and/or processes that contribute to: reduction of energy consumption, control and optimization of consumption in devices that use electricity, heating and air conditioning, systems for early warning and prevention of danger and breakdown, a smart system for controlling energy consumption in schools with automatic monitoring and control of all lights in schools and the system being able to turn on / off the lights independently. The project proposal competitor is required to maintain the energy consumption control system for at least 12 months.
The total budget for this challenge amounts to 21,525,000 denars, of which the Fund provides 12,300,000 denars, and the Ministry of Local Self-Government provides 9,225,000 denars. For the winning project proposal, the Fund together with MLS provide financing of 100% of the total budget for the project.
All those who correspond to the application criteria can apply for the challenge, i.e.: a trading company established in accordance with the Law on Trading Companies and registered in the Central Register, annual revenues not exceeding 10 million euros in Denar equivalents, the average number of employees not to exceed 250 employees, not to be connected with another company and/or PHI whose annual revenues exceed 10 million euros and etc.
The activities of the project proposal should include: a module for automatic management of energy consumption, a module for manual reprogramming of the system and a module for control and user access.
Costs that are eligible for financing are: gross salaries including salary supplements in accordance with the Law on Labor Relations, purchase and/or rental of equipment and consumables for research and development, services from external experts, advisors, consultants, subcontracts and others operational costs.
All received project proposals are evaluated by the Commission for Evaluation and Selection, which consists of five members: two members who are external experts in the field of the challenge, two members who are representatives of the partner organization and one representative from the Fund. The evaluation and selection commission will evaluate the projects based on defined criteria: degree of innovation, capacity of the project team, quality of the project, potential for implementation and sustainability of the solution and impact.
The deadline for applying to the public call is until October 5, 2023, until 2:00 p.m. Additional information about the challenge can be obtained on the website of the Fund: https://fitr.mk or at the e-mail address: shkolskimenadjment@fitr.mk