Note after the press conference on May 11, 2023
“ On the road.” An innovative project of an application for booking accommodation for seniors and people with physical disabilities, implemented with the support of the Norway Grants .
On May 11, 2023 (Thursday), a press conference organized by Rekta Consulting was held at the Zielony Niedźwiedź Restaurant, next to the Entrepreneurship Center in Warsaw’s Powiśle district. It was a meeting summarizing the current implementation of the project supported by the Norway Grants for enterprising women, within the area of ”Technologies supporting the quality of life”. The company received funding from Norway, through Norwegian Funds, under the “Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation” program, Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2020, scheme NORW.19/01/04 Small Grants Schemes for female enterprises. Project titled The database and booking platform of centers in Poland for people with limited mobility is implemented in digital form.
The Scandinavian countries, especially Norway, are known for innovative solutions in terms of eliminating inequality and exclusion of seniors and disabled people, preventing discrimination and implementing sustainable social policy. Norway also shares its experience in these issues with Poland by launching the Norwegian Financial Mechanism, which is, in essence, non-repayable financial assistance granted to countries that have joined the European Union since 2004. Poland is the largest beneficiary of the Norway Grants. As part of the “Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation” program, Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021, Small Grant Scheme for Entrepreneurial Women, grant funding was awarded to a project with the working name “On the Road. “Dream holidays for everyone” selected during the competition recruitment conducted by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development.
The first and extremely important step in the project was to redefine the criteria of the selected target group and then identify the accommodation and stay facilities that meet these criteria. For this purpose, in February 2022, a study entitled “Selection criteria” was conducted. Its aim was to define a list of criteria followed by seniors, people with physical disabilities and their companions when searching for accommodation in Poland. The research results were developed in the form of a survey and were used to select and qualify accommodation facilities in the field. After final verification, 1,379 objects with photos were implemented into the database. Facilities meeting the criteria of the target group are located in 39 sanatorium towns, in 2 urban centers that are not sanatoriums [Lublin and Warsaw], and in 12 different voivodeships in Poland. This was the most important but also very time-consuming stage of the project, which lasted from February 15, 2022 to March 25, 2023. It is planned to expand the scope of qualifications to include cities (Gdynia, Poznań, Warsaw) and areas (Świętokrzyskie, Kashubia, Pomerania) that are attractive to the target group and implement additional places to the data base.
“The experience of our Partner, the IT company Norge Digital from Oslo, is very useful when working on the application. With such a large number of objects and photo files, subject to various filters, it is not easy to design a booking panel in a simple, functional and easily accessible way. Our common goal is an understandable, language- and technically friendly object filtering selection module, which will constitute the basis of an innovative accommodation reservation application. And we are on the right track to achieve it,” emphasized the representative of Rekta Consulting.
During the meeting, the current scope of support from the Norway Grants was presented and the efficiency in obtaining subsequent tranches of aid was emphasized. The degree of social and economic impact of the project was indicated. The gathered guests had the opportunity to view the prototype of the booking website online. The application is located on the Azul Microsoft online platform, from which tests, additions and data implementation are continued. The work is planned to last until mid-September 2023, ending on September 30, 2023, with a ready and operational prototype.
The target address of the application on the Internet will be the “wdroge.org” domain, in line with the project’s assumption expressed in the slogan: “On the road! “Dream holidays available to everyone.”
Basic information about funding
Rekta Consulting received funding from Norway, through Norwegian Funds, under the “Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation” program, Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014 -2021, scheme NORW.19/01/04 Small Grants Schemes for female enterprises. Project number: NORW.19.01.04-14-0016/20
Title: Database and booking platform for centers in Poland for people with limited mobility.
The project benefits from funding worth EUR 195,344.53 (PLN 838,575.00) received from Norway. Support from the Norwegian Funds amounts to 85% of the project value, and the total project cost is PLN 1,123,250. The implementation period is two years, from October 2021 to September 2023.
The partner in the project is Norge Digital from Oslo.
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Additional information about the Norwegian Financial Mechanism for Poland >>>
The Norway grants are exclusively financed by Norway and are available in the countries that joined the EU after 2003. The Norway grants for 2014-2021 amount to EUR 1.25 billion. The priorities for that period include:
#1 innovation, research, education, competitiveness and decent work;
#2 social inclusion, youth employment and poverty reduction;
#3 environment, energy, climate change and low-carbon economy;
#4 culture, civil society, good governance and basic rights;
#5 justice and internal affairs.
