EC announces European Social Innovation Competition with €50,000 prizes for best ideas

The European Commission has announced the 2016 edition of the European Social Innovation Competition. This year’s theme is ‘integrated futures,‘ and the EC is requesting ‘creative approaches that realize the potential of refugees and migrants, enabling them to contribute to the social, economic, cultural and political life of their host countries.’

Building on the significant grassroots response to the recent arrival of over a million refugees and migrants to Europe, the 2016 Competition aims to tap into the creativity of Europeans to come up with new ideas to foster integration through a bottom-up, citizen-led approach.

The Competition hopes to receive innovations in products, technologies, services and models that support the integration of refugees and migrants.

The Competition is open to individuals, groups and organisations across the European Union and in countries participating in the European Horizon 2020 programme. Applications that are led by or have been co-created with refugees and migrants are particularly encouraged.

The Competition will help the most innovative ideas to turn into real projects and achieve sustainable impact. Thirty of the most promising applications will be chosen as semi-finalists and will be invited to a social innovation mentoring academy in Berlin in July to progress their ideas.

The three best projects will each be awarded with a prize of €50,000 at the awards ceremony to take place in Brussels in October 2016.

Applications are open until Friday 8 April 2016.

The competition is organised by the European Commission, supported by Nesta, Kennisland,Shipyard, Impact Hub and Matter&Co.

For full details please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/social-innovation-competition

For questions about applications please contact: info@socialinnovationprize.eu.

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