An Evanton couple has won an international challenge to provide help for businesses and communities during the pandemic.
The 48-hour challenge was aimed at 18-30-year olds from NORA, the north Atlantic region, which includes Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Coastal Norway and Scotland.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has been working with NORA to extend the initiative to the region, with 16 of the 29 Scottish participants hailing from the north.
And Evanton husband and wife duo Samuel Warnock and Rachael Bews came out tops with their remote shopping app, called Shop with Me, which provides a solution for small rural retail businesses operating during the pandemic.
Ms Bews said: “It has been such a rewarding experience for us to really focus on a current problem in such a short space of time and develop innovative solutions.”
The runner-up prize was won by a transnational team from Scotland and Iceland, which included two participants from the Highlands and Islands. Their idea was an app called ParentEd, a tool to assist parents supporting their children with school at home.
Kateryna McKinnon, European manager at HIE, said: “All the teams delivered very exciting innovations, which address our region’s specific preconditions.
“This was a fantastic opportunity to generate great ideas and prototype solutions which could be developed into commercial products, but also help save lives.”
Øystein Andresen, advisor from NORA, said: “We wanted to inspire the young generation to work together to combat the pandemic and we were blown away with their amazing ideas.”