matrix gGmbH

Background:

matrix gGmbH for the promotion of democracy, participation and sustainable social development is the non-profit company of the matrix group, where a total of around 70 people work. It bundles the numerous non-commercial projects and the matrix commitment.

These include, among others:

• projects for equal opportunities through inclusion and health promotion in social spaces,
• projects for and with young people, for example in the area of STEAM promotion.
• projects related to digital manufacturing methods to create innovative open source hardware in co-creative processes. 

The matrix gGmbH team works in close professional exchange with the matrix group to ensure a high quality of work, especially in the STEAM area.
One thematic and project focus at matrix is STEAM.

• As a leading partner in the MINTvernetzt project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FMER), we are helping to establish the central nationwide contact point that supports the STEM actors with service offers, advice and networking formats.
• We are also working on the MINT Campus project, which aims to provide offers for STEAM experts on a digital learning platform (also funded by the FMER).
• We have our own matrix lab, where we want to implement STEAM education offers. Here we especially plan to address so called “easy to ignore” groups, such as children with participation restrictions, e.g. because of their gender, socio-economic or cultural background.
• In the matrix group, we are also in charge of the project Zukunft durch Innovation (zdi) on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Science North Rhine-Westfalia (NRW). With over 5,000 partnerships with actors from science, business, schools and other education places, politics and society, zdi.NRW is the largest network in Europe for the promotion of young STEAM talent.
• We implement a program for career and study orientation in the STEAM sector on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Science and the Federal Employment Agency called zdi-BSO-MINT. This involves in-depth offers for young people which are implemented by the zdi networks and school labs.
• We accompany and advise extracurricular learning venues in their development.
• We are experts in setting up and advising regional network structures to establish STEAM promotion locally.

Overall, our projects give us a high level of expertise at the interface between formal and non-formal education.

The STEAMAction Plan is the strategic umbrella for existing funding measures of the FMER. Here, people along the education chain, from kindergarten to higher education and initial and continuing training, shall experience STEAM.

There is an active STEAM scene in Germany, but it varies depending on the federal state. While in North Rhine-Westphalia, with zdi.NRW, a systematic extracurricular STEM community has been growing for almost 20 years now. The federal networking agency "MINTvernetzt", which is funded by the FMER, aims to bring the entire STEAM scene in Germany closer together and create synergies.