On December 15 and 16, 2022, digital innovation hubs from Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in a study visit to the PISMO incubator in Novska (Croatia) in relation to the topic ”gamification for development”.

A visit to the unique and first Croatian gaming incubator PISMO, which also officially became a European DIH and one of digitalisation centres in Croatia several days ago, was organised for representatives of digital innovation hubs IDEMO and Its4Health. This specific organisation is known as the centre of the gaming industry in Croatia and beyond. They dispose of premises with an area of more than 2.000m² and offer office and co-working space, conference rooms, a video and music studio, virtual reality equipment, a motion capture studio, a photogrammetry studio, 3D printers and computer equipment for new generations of professionals and video games. It also continuously organises trainings related to digital technologies and information events.

In addition to this, PISMO has built an astonishing cooperation with the private and public sector in only six years. A particularly good cooperation was established with public secondary education institutions that currently offer innovative secondary education curricula. There are also plans to develop academic studies focusing on the gaming industry.

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During the two-day study visit, representatives of DIHs from Bosnia and Herzegovina learned about the work concept of the PISMO incubator, the range of services they offer, infrastructure and technology that was installed at the incubator, best practices in place and future development plans, including also the EDIH PISMO project, which will focus on the provision of digitalisation services in the field of artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, Internet of Things and gamification for a wide range of industries over the coming three years. A special topic of discussion was also the application of gamification to development activities.

Representatives of DIHs from Bosnia and Herzegovina also had a chance to present their plans and activities and explore the possibilities for cooperation, especially in the context of cross-border cooperation, EDIH activities of the PISMO incubator and mutual transfer of know-how and technological innovations.

The study visit to the PISMO incubator was made possible by the project ”Innovation and Digitalisation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina” that is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMZ). The project is co-financed by the European Union in the part related to the EU4DigitalSME programme for the digital transformation support to SMEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which makes them more competitive, knowledgeable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly.