DRP: UZOR brings together people from very different professional backgrounds. When you are working on something as complex as the SMILE Incubator, how does that mix actually help?
Teodora Ivanović: Honestly, none of us came into this with the same background, and I think that’s actually been the secret. A couple of my colleagues already knew Interreg inside and out, while I was completely new to it. So instead of trying to figure everything out alone, I basically learned by leaning on them — how the reporting works, what the programme actually expects, that whole rhythm of working transnationally.
DRP: You have worked with over 200 young people in rural areas. What did you learn from them that convinced you this project is tackling the right problems?
Teodora Ivanović: The most important thing we learned is that young people in rural areas do not lack motivation or ambition. What they often lack are accessible opportunities, support systems and the feeling that their voice can lead to concrete change.
Through our research in Montenegro, we collected 187 responses from young people in rural communities, which we complemented with interviews and expert opinions. Their answers confirmed that issues such as migration, limited opportunities for professional development, the loss of human and intellectual capital, population ageing and insufficient digital skills are not simply abstract topics found in strategic documents.
These issues directly affect young people’s decisions about whether to remain in their communities, leave, become actively involved or withdraw from social and decision-making processes altogether.
At the same time, we saw that many young people want to contribute to the development of their communities. They want to be heard and to create something useful, but they need practical tools, support and connections with people and institutions that can help them.
This convinced us that the SMILE Incubator is addressing the right problem. The problem is not a lack of potential among young people, but a lack of opportunities to develop and use that potential.
DRP: The SMILE Incubator is about giving rural young people tools they did not have before—social media skills, leadership and a sense that they can actually shape something. When you run a capacity-building session, what does that shift look like in a person?
Teodora Ivanović: This shift can often be observed through small but very meaningful moments. At the beginning of an activity, a participant may feel uncertain, reserved and reluctant to express an opinion publicly. They may believe that they do not know enough or that decisions concerning their community are made somewhere else, without their involvement.
During a well-designed capacity-building process, this attitude gradually changes. A young person moves from thinking, “I do not know enough to participate,” to asking questions such as, “How can I present this idea?” or “Who can I involve to help make this initiative happen?”
Participants begin to see social media not only as a space for entertainment, but also as a tool for presenting local initiatives, bringing people together, starting dialogue and advocating for change.
They also begin to understand leadership differently. They no longer see leadership only as a formal position, but as the willingness to take responsibility, listen to others, initiate a small local action and bring people together around a shared idea.
For us, the real result is not simply that someone has learned how to use a particular digital tool. What matters more is that they leave the activity with greater confidence, a clearer sense of personal responsibility and the belief that their contribution has value.
DRP: Montenegro has its own pace and its own culture around youth participation. How do you adapt a transnational curriculum so that it does not feel imported, but follows naturally within a rural community here?
Teodora Ivanović: The first and most important step is to listen to young people and the local community. Although the core programme is developed at the transnational level, its implementation must begin with the real lives, language, experiences and needs of people in the local community.
Focus groups are particularly helpful in this process. Through focus-group discussions, we can gain a deeper understanding of how young people think, the problems they face, the reasons why they do or do not participate in social processes and the types of support they would find most useful.
Surveys provide important quantitative information, but focus groups help us understand the personal stories, experiences and reasons behind the data. They bring us closer to the real situation and help us identify the most suitable way to reach the project’s objectives.
In this project, based on information collected through surveys, interviews with experts, focus-group discussions and communication with local stakeholders, we have adapted examples, terminology, exercises and working methods.
Something that is applicable in a large European city may not work in the same way in a small rural municipality in Montenegro, where opportunities for participation are often much more limited.
We also do not present the programme as a finished solution brought in from outside. Young people and local stakeholders should have an opportunity to influence how the activities are implemented.
When they recognise their own experiences, needs and local challenges within the programme, it no longer feels imported. It becomes a process that belongs to their community.
DRP: You have been involved in EU-funded projects through various programmes before the SMILE Incubator. Looking at what you are building and learning through the Danube Region Programme specifically, what has this experience added to UZOR as an organisation that the others did not?
Teodora Ivanović: The Danube Region Programme has brought a particularly strong territorial and transnational dimension to our organisation’s work.
The partners operate in different national, cultural and institutional contexts, while at the same time facing similar challenges in rural areas, such as youth migration, demographic decline, limited participation in decision-making processes and unequal access to opportunities.
For UZOR, this experience is particularly valuable because it has further strengthened our ability to connect local data and experience with regional solutions.
We are not only implementing activities in Montenegro. We are also contributing Montenegrin data, analyses, examples of good practice and information about relevant stakeholders to the broader picture of the Danube region.
At the same time, we have an opportunity to compare our approaches with those of partners from other countries and assess which good practices could be adapted to the Montenegrin context.
Our role in the development of the institutional platform of the SMILE Incubator is also particularly important. This activity requires us to think beyond individual workshops and short-term project activities.
We need to consider how to establish a support system that will be sustainable, connected with relevant stakeholders and useful even after the formal end of the project.
This experience has therefore further improved our strategic planning and our capacity to connect local initiatives with broader regional processes.
DRP: On a more personal level, has working on a transnational project of this scale, across 14 countries and 20 partners, changed the way your team works or thinks about rural youth challenges in Montenegro? Have you improved your technical and managerial skills?
Teodora Ivanović: Yes, this experience has influenced both the way we work and the way we understand the challenges faced by young people in rural areas.
Working within a large international partnership requires a high level of precision in planning, internal coordination, documentation and communication.
Through this project, we have further improved our skills in managing project deliverables, following common methodologies, coordinating contributions from different partners and aligning our activities with ethical principles, gender-equality principles, communication rules and reporting requirements specific to Interreg projects.
On both a personal and professional level, this project has helped us understand the challenges facing rural youth in Montenegro as part of a wider regional pattern, while remaining aware that solutions must still be adapted to local circumstances.
It has also shown us that Montenegro and our organisations have valuable experience that can be shared with other partners. We are not involved only to learn from others, but also to contribute our own knowledge, experience and examples of good practice.
DRP: When this project is over, what would have to be true for you to consider it a success—not on paper, but in reality?
Teodora Ivanović: For us, success would mean that the changes and activities continue after the final report has been submitted.
We would like the young people who participated in the SMILE Incubator to continue using the knowledge and skills they gained, to initiate local activities, present their ideas, participate in decision-making processes and encourage other young people to become involved.
We would also like them to remain connected with one another and to maintain relationships with organisations and institutions that can support their ideas.
At the organisational level, success would mean that the SMILE Incubator is not remembered as a temporary project activity, but becomes a useful model or platform that local stakeholders recognise and continue to use.
It is important that institutions and civil society organisations begin to see young people from rural areas as partners and active participants, rather than only as beneficiaries of project activities.
DRP: How do you think the experience and networks you are building through the SMILE Incubator will position UZOR—and Montenegro more broadly-when the country finally takes its seat at the EU table?
Teodora Ivanović: The SMILE Incubator is helping UZOR further develop the capacities that will become increasingly important as Montenegro moves closer to membership in the European Union.
These include the ability to work within complex international partnerships, contribute reliable data and analyses, manage common methodologies and translate European priorities into concrete and useful activities at the local level.
The networks established through the project are equally important. They connect us with organisations, experts and institutions throughout the Danube region and create relationships that can continue after the project has ended.
In this way, UZOR is not positioning itself only as an organisation that implements EU-funded activities, but also as a reliable partner capable of contributing knowledge, data and experience from Montenegro to regional initiatives and policy discussions.
For Montenegro, projects such as the SMILE Incubator provide an opportunity to prepare for active EU membership even before formal accession.
They help organisations and institutions develop a culture of cooperation, accountability, knowledge exchange and joint problem-solving, which is essential for functioning effectively within the European Union.
When Montenegro takes its place at the EU table, it is important that it does not arrive only as a country ready to adopt existing solutions, but also as a country prepared to contribute its own experience and knowledge.
Through this project, we are building the knowledge, experience and international connections that will help make that contribution visible and meaningful.