Help section
Here you will find answers to questions about using our community platform.
Can't find an answer to your question? Please send us an email: support@mint-vernetzt.de
Questions about STEM education
- STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, mathematics. These fields form the foundation for numerous technological innovations and scientific discoveries. The term “STEM” includes the integration of various disciplines such as Art, Design, Music, the Environment, as well as societal or social issues. For example, if an artistic field is included, STEM is extended to STEAM, where the “A” stands for “Art”.
General information about the platform
- Our platform is aimed at stakeholders in STEM education, including: Providers of STEM education programs Employees of extracurricular STEM learning locations Coordinators of regional STEM networks, STEM clusters or STEM projects Advocates for women in STEM professions Volunteers in the STEM field Employees from business and industry who focus on STEM, girls and gender Project developers and funders seeking STEM education providers, role models and projects Anyone interested in STEM
- The nationwide STEM community thrives on exchanging ideas, sharing knowledge, and learning from and with each other. A variety of functions, tools, and opportunities await you on the platform: The STEM world in one place. Find stakeholders with specific skills, organizations in your region, inspiring projects , and relevant events using our filter and search functions. Continue your education and network with other stakeholders. Register for exciting events. Find other event attendees and download presentations. Discover current funding opportunities for your projects in our funding search . Find support for your work through access to the MINT media database and, soon, our MINT sharepic generator .
- Yes, the platform is available free of charge.
- The MINT-Vernetzungsstelle Deutschland, or MINTvernetzt for short, is the central service and contact point for (extracurricular) MINT stakeholders in german-speaking countries. We create networking spaces and offer various free, practice-oriented workshop formats, including topics on target group-specific and cliché-free communication, innovative design, as well as financing and sustaining STEM offerings. MINTvernetzt is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and is jointly implemented by employees of the Körber Stiftung , matrix gGmbH , the Nationales MINT Forum e. V. , the Stifterverband , and the University of Regensburg . matrix gGmbH is responsible for the development and implementation of the community platform. The MINTvernetzt community platform has been live since fall 2022. Our co-creative approach with participatory processes enables continuous development based on the wishes and needs of the MINT community. This is how we continuously develop the platform. You can find out which features are planned next on the platform's homepage under .
Questions about registration and my profile
- We want to make many features freely accessible so that you can easily view content. Not all content is visible when you're not logged in, so we recommend registering. Additionally, you, as well as your own organizations and projects, can only be added after registration. You can also register for events only after you have created a profile.
- With the MINT ID, you can register for the MINTvernetzt community platform and the MINT Campus simultaneously. You only log in once and can then use all the features and offerings of both platforms. The MINT Campus is the digital learning platform for the STEM community with freely accessible materials and learning opportunities for educational and project work. With the MINT ID, you save time during registration and then have the option to easily switch between the two platforms. You can continue to use your MINTvernetzt account even without a MINT ID. You also need a MINT ID to use the MINT Media Database . The MINT Media Database is a constantly growing database of free STEM images and graphics that you can use to make your public relations work appealing and targeted. Soon, you will also be able to access the MINT Sharepic Generator with the MINT ID. With the help of the Sharepic Generator, you can easily create graphics for your public relations work for free. 👉 You can find more information about the MINT ID here: https://mintcampus.org/mint-id/
- Please send a message to our technical support: support@mint-vernetzt.de
- Under Settings > Edit Profile – General , you'll see your primary email address. Your login will be handled using this email address. You can create an additional email address here, which will be displayed next to your primary email address on your profile. You can change your primary email address under Settings > Edit Profile – Login and Security . Your login will then be handled using this new email address.
- Under Settings > Edit Profile – General you can create two email addresses. These will both appear on your profile under Contact.
- Go to My space > My organizations . Under “Add me to an organization“ , you can search for your organization or network on the platform and add yourself. If your organization/network hasn't been created yet, you can create it in the next step. To do so, click the Create organization button.
- You can remove yourself from your organization as a team member or admin on the platform. Go to My space > My organizations . Via the three-dot menu on the organization card you can remove yourself from the organization. If you are the only admin or sole team member of the organization, you must first invite another person to assume your admin or team member role before you can remove yourself as an admin or team member of the organization. If you remain active within the STEM field, feel free to add yourself to your new organization as a team member. Go to My space > My organizations . Under “Add me to an organization” you can search for your organization or network on the platform and add yourself. If your organization/network hasn't been created yet, you can create it in the next step. To do so, click the Create new organization button. If you leave the STEM field, you can also delete your profile. To do so, click Settings . There, under Edit profile , in the “Delete profile“ tab, you can remove your profile from the platform.
- In this case, please contact our support team at support@mint-vernetzt.de
Questions about organization / network
- Networks on the MINTvernetzt community platform are organizations that have specified “Network“ as the organizational form in their organizational settings. It is possible to select multiple organizational forms, making them, for example, an association and a network. Furthermore, networks can also have different network forms. Options include alliance, MINT cluster, MINT region, state initiative, and other network. These can be specified by selecting multiple options under “Edit organization.“ Organizations are associations, foundations, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, companies, initiatives, or networks. An organization is an independent entity that carries out projects. It has its own structures, processes, and resources. An organization can carry out multiple projects and generally has a long-term existence. Projects are specific activities or initiatives carried out by one or more organizations or individuals. They often have a specific duration and budget. A project can be, for example, a hackathon, a student lab, a project week, a mobile STEM format, a lending system, an online format, an all-day program, and much more.
- A network consists of several member organizations that work toward achieving common goals. Member organizations are the individual institutions that participate in these networks.
- If you are an admin of your organization on the community platform, you can go to your organization and edit it. You can access your organizations via the navigation point My space > My Organizations . A table displays the organizations for which you are an admin. Click on the three dots icon and select Edit . This will take you to your organization settings . Alternatively, you can click on your organization's card (the box with information about your organization). You will then be taken to your organization's details page. Click on the Edit button here. Under “Manage organization“ you can then select “Network“ as the organizational form and in the next step select the network forms, such as alliance, MINT cluster, MINT region, state initiative, other network. This information will then appear on your organization card and on your organization details page. In the next step, you can add your network members by sending them an invitation to join your network. Once they have confirmed the invitation, your member organizations will be listed under “Network“ on your organization details page. Network members must have a profile on the community platform for you to invite them as network members.
- No, you can add network members to your organization by sending them an invitation to join your network . Once they confirm the invitation, your member organizations will be listed under “Network“ on your organization details page. Network members must have a profile on the community platform before you can invite them as a network member.
- As the MINTvernetzt community platform, our goal is to make networks visible and thus support the community. STEM practitioners can use the platform to learn about organizations and see which networks they are part of. Soon they can also search and filter for different network types using the search and filter functions.
- You can access your organizations via the navigation point My space > My Organizations . A table displays the organizations for which you are an admin. Click on the three dots icon and select Edit . Alternatively, you can click on your organization's card (box with information about your organization). You will then be taken to your organization's details page. Click on the Edit button here. This will take you to your organization settings . Under “Manage organization“ , under the query “Is your organization part of a network?“ , you can select organizations that are already created on the platform and request to join the network . As soon as the admins of these organizations confirm your request to join, your organization will be listed as a network member. This is visible on the organization's details page under “Network“, and your organization will also be listed as a network member on the network organization's details page.
Questions about projects
- Yes, since projects are also carried out by individuals, you can create a project with us even without an organization behind it.
Questions about events
- Under Explore > Events you will find a list of current events. Select the desired event and click “Participate“ . Please note that you must be logged in to the platform to register for an event. Don't have a profile on the MINTvernetzt community platform yet? You can register here.
- Currently, we only offer event creation on the community platform to MINTvernetzt, MINT-Campus, and interested beta testers. In the next step, we will open up the possibility for the entire community to create their own events. Important: Our platform is NOT aimed at children and young people, but exclusively at MINT stakeholders, education providers, network coordinators, etc . Events such as MINT holiday courses or weekly offerings in a student lab do not belong here.
Questions about the funding search
- You can access the MINTvernetzt funding search via the navigation Discover > Funding or via Resources . Or you can use this link: https://community.mint-vernetzt.de/explore/fundings
- The funding search lists STEM-relevant funding opportunities that are updated every Monday from four funding databases. The compiled funding opportunities can be filtered to get more suitable results.
- Use the filters to specifically search for funding available in your region or that matches the eligibility criteria, e.g., for associations. Example: Imagine you filter for funding and select two options: Funding area: Education / Training Region Bavaria With an AND connection, only the funding that is available in both the education area and Bavaria will be displayed. Therefore, it is useful to test different filter options.
- We list funding in the areas of consulting, participation, financing, credit/loan, lump sum/prize money, qualification, networking, and grants. However, we also receive entries for funding that cannot be assigned to these categories because the data is not provided on the original funding pages. These are then listed in our funding search under 'Without category' or 'Other'.
- The funding opportunities are automatically compiled from four underlying databases: German Foundation for Engagement and Volunteering https://foerderdatenbank.d-s-e-e.de Funding Finder of the Platform for Social Innovations and Public Welfare-Oriented Companies https://sigu-plattform.de/foerderfinder Funding Database of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action https://www.foerderdatenbank.de Funding Finder by consider it GmbH https://foerder-finder.de Send us suggestions for additional databases to be included in an email with the subject: “Funding search“ to community@mint-vernetzt.de .
- New results from the four underlying funding databases are imported every Monday.
- You can help us fix this error by creating a screenshot and sending it by email with the subject: 'Funding search' to community@mint-vernetzt.de . Ideally, also let us know your browser. Try reloading the page, often the problem is then already solved.
- Yes, very gladly. Send us an email with the subject: “Funding search“ to community@mint-vernetzt.de . We are grateful for any feedback and ideas. This way we can further improve the funding search.
Further questions
- Are you a STEM actor, designer or programmer and are interested in actively shaping the platform? We are always looking for testers for new features. Contact us at community@mint-vernetzt.de . We develop the platform using open source software – click here for our GitHub repository.
- We welcome feedback and questions as we aim to develop the platform to best meet our users' needs. Feel free to contact Inga Leffers at community@mint-vernetzt.de .
- We present our current roadmap on the platform's homepage – even when not logged in. There you can find an overwiew of the functions we are currently developing and those planned for the future. We will keep you updated on new features via platform updates.
Support
Can't find an answer to your question?
Please send us an e-mail:
support@mint-vernetzt.de