About us

PiNA is a platform for collaboration.

Since 1998, PiNA has been creating spaces for dialogue, innovation, and social responsibility. What began as the first internet café in Slovenia later grew into a multimedia and youth center, a member of the EUROPE DIRECT Slovenia network, and a hub for NGOs of the Coastal-Karst Region, ISKRA. Today, PiNA also leads HEKA, a laboratory at the intersection of science and art, serves as a CERV national contact point, and is recognized as a public-interest organization in the fields of culture, youth, and international development cooperation.

We operate through five thematic pillars that form the backbone of our work: non-formal education, participation, art and culture, supportive environments, and information. Through them, we connect people, science, art, and communities, creating space for empathy, creativity, and collective problem-solving.

HISTORY

TRANSPARENCY

REFERENCES

The development of the HEKA laboratory, the Plac priložnosti festival, the Green Cohesion project and the continuation of public outreach on European cohesion policy in cooperation with RTV Slovenia, the Social Innovators project, which connected young people with the NGO sector and produced the impactful campaigns Nurturing the World Can Be a Job and later on Profi naj bo, PiNA’s entry into the European S+T+ARTS programme, the innovative educational project FulFejk for strengthening critical thinking, four editions of the Design+Science Summer School combining research and design, the implementation of participatory budgeting in several Slovenian municipalities, the development and execution of IDEATONs, the large-scale participatory action Draw the Coast, the consultation on Inclusion and Active Participation of Minority and Migrant Communities in Slovenia, professional publications such as the handbook Cohesion Policy Without Borders, and efforts to bring participatory science closer to young people and the wider public are just some of PiNA’s visible contributions to fulfilling its mission.

These initiatives are supported by programmes such as European Territorial Cooperation, Horizon Europe, Creative Europe, Erasmus+, Europe for Citizens, the European Social Fund, and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism, and are developed in cooperation with partners at the local, national and international level. Some are also showcased in PiNA’s 240 m² premises in the centre of Koper.

The premises host a team of 17 permanent employees, 30 outworkers and many individuals, supporters, activists, visitors and users, who co-create the space.