The project „STEM in the clouds“ will bring together five civil society organisations engaged in non-formal education of children and young people in the STEM field (science, technology, engineering and math). It is aimed at improving the capacities of employees, volunteers and the organisations generally for working in an online environment – for procuring equipment and software, and for introducing new working methods into their operations. According to an infographic produced by the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, the civil sector grew in every respect from 2017 to 2019, but the problems civil society organisations faced in 2020 (as a result of the COVID crisis and the earthquakes) put the organisations, their employees, members, volunteers and users (most often the most vulnerable members of society) at a disadvantage. The civil sector is compelled to become more flexible and more open to the possibilities offered by the online environment and technologies, because children and young people from smaller communities – who already have fewer chances to explore the STEM field, as there are no organisations working on it where they live – were left without activities aimed at sparking interest in STEM as a result of the pandemic. Because of the need to strengthen capacities for delivering online STEM educational content to children and young people from smaller communities, we submitted the project „STEM in the clouds“ to the public call „Strengthening the capacities of CSOs to respond to the needs of the local community“ (UP.04.2.1.11) from the European Social Fund, Operational Programme „Efficient Human Resources“ 2014 – 2020. By a decision of the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia of 17 June 2022, it was determined that the project was awarded HRK 464,562.46, of which the grant amounts to 100% (the European Social Fund share being 85% and the State Budget of the Republic of Croatia 15%). As a result of strengthening the capacities of civil society organisations, from 15 September 2022 to 15 September 2023 the partners will deliver 3 training courses within the activity „Organising training for representatives of civil society organisations in financial management and fundraising and in the legislative framework for the work of civil society organisations“; 3 multi-day sessions, a training course and a session within the activity „Designing and delivering training and other forms of strengthening and improving the capacities of CSO employees and/or volunteers for direct work in the field of employment, social inclusion and education, including adapting operations through the use of information and communication technologies“; develop and pilot an online volunteering programme within the activity „Encouraging volunteering in the local community“; deliver 5 cycles of sessions on 5 STEM topics and produce 5 video-animated educational materials for online learning within the activity „Designing, producing and delivering online programmes and sessions, providing psychological and advisory help to people who have suffered trauma, stress or loss as a result of a crisis situation“; and, within „Producing online and digital handbooks, games, simulations and other tools for self-help and support to vulnerable groups“, produce an online educational board game. The planned activities, whose aim is to popularise STEM, will be carried out in order to introduce new working methods (delivering online education synchronously and asynchronously, producing a course and the like) and to strengthen the organisations’ capacities for producing online educational content adapted to children and young people. Delivering the project „STEM in the clouds“ will contribute to the organisations’ agility in facing crisis situations in the future and in offering their users quality programmes in an online environment too. It will also ensure the continuous delivery of programmes of general interest to our society and contribute in general to overcoming, in the long term, the crisis we all find ourselves in. The lead of the STEM in the clouds project is the Rijeka Technical Culture Centre, and the project consortium further comprises Visnjan Observatory, Bioteka – the association for the promotion of biology and related sciences, CARPE DIEM – the association for encouraging and developing the creative and social potential of children, young people and adults, and FabLab Hrvatska – the association for the promotion of digital fabrication. For more about EU funds: www.strukturnifondovi.hr and www.esf.hr. The content of this web post is the sole responsibility of the Rijeka Technical Culture Centre.