The Biohacking Laboratory as a Model for Community-Driven Innovation, that can be easily replicated;  With the biohacking laboratory in the City of Skopje, we have developed a replicable model for integrating innovation with education, bridging scientific research, citizen participation, and entrepreneurship. The lab is empowering communities by focusing on biowaste, as a resource that is connecting scientific exploration to tangible local issues, promoting practical, community-driven solutions. Lastly the Biohacking Laboratory offers a blueprint for fostering innovation through community-oriented, inclusive spaces. It highlights how accessible, education-focused interventions can catalyze systemic change and inspire similar initiatives across sectors, starting from biowaste. Through Targeted Support create new businesses The "Biohack My World" program highlighted the untapped entrepreneurial potential of biowaste management and teams working with biotechnologies. This learning emerged after program implementation, particularly when observing how participants transitioned from conceptual ideas and MVPs to practical, scalable solutions. The second ranked team BioHive exemplified this learning. In the biohacking laboratory with our expert’s help they created lethal skin out of kombucha leftover and went to raise additional 90k$ investments from various private and institutional donors. They even won the Startup of the Year award for Macedonia as well as were winners of the Founder Games. Their innovative approach to transforming biowaste into biodegradable product showcased how startups can tackle environmental challenges while unlocking new markets and business opportunities.   Biowaste as art The creation of Skopje’s first city souvenir from biowaste, crafted as part of the Biohacking Laboratory initiative, demonstrated the potential to merge sustainability with cultural expression; The souvenir became a tangible example of circular economy principles, transforming waste into a value-added product. Furthermore, it had cultural and Economic significance as it not only promoted Skopje’s culture but also introduced an eco-friendly product into the market, supporting green entrepreneurship

All the materials and the biohacking lab has been transferred to the City of Skopje. The City has also fundraised additional finances from Bloomberg Philanthropy for the biohacking lab programs from 2025.  

For the biowaste souvenir  it took 2 biotechnicians and 1 industrial designed more than 6 months to develop the world’s first souvenir created entirely from the biowaste a city produces that can be easily replicated by non professionals. In the first phase detailed mapping and waste valorization of three enterprises of the City was conducted. The second phase proposed methods for cellulose extraction from green biowaste using alkali delignification, and natural delignification. In the third phase the industrial designer had to create ways how this material extracted from the biowaste can be made into a souvenir.  

The interplay of innovation methods, new forms of data, and unconventional partnerships within the biohacking lab and biotechnologies pilot program created a unique environment for learning and insight generation that would have been impossible through traditional approaches. 

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