The European Commission Announces the Winners of the European Social Innovation Competition 2018

Brüssel (ots) - Initiated by the European Commission, the European
Social Innovation Competition awards outstanding projects that foster
and showcase social innovations and entrepreneurial ideas across
Europe. This year's winners were announced today at the Awards
Ceremony at the Albert Hall in Brussels.

Under the theme RE:THINK LOCAL, this year's edition of the
competition recognises projects that turn local challenges emerging
from the changing economy into opportunities for younger generations.
The winning projects are a digital travel platform for deaf people
(Ulisse), an incubation programme for young people who want to set up
a business (HeritageLab) and a career orientation venture for young
people from small urban and rural areas (Career Bus). Each winner
will receive a EUR50.000 prize to further develop and implement their
ideas and received a trophy designed and produced by Paris-based
artist William Amor with recycled materials.

Elzbieta Bienkowska, Commissioner for the Internal Market,
Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs said: "I congratulate this year's
winners. They create opportunities where most only see challenges.
The European Commission is committed to empowering youth in shaping a
better future for themselves, their communities and Europe at large.
The winning projects can deliver on this goal in a sustainable way
which will be beneficial for both the economy and society at large."

Ulisse (Italy) is the first ever European digital platform that
creates, markets and promotes local travel experiences and full
holiday bundles designed by deaf people for deaf people. It is
committed to promoting the employment of young deaf people through
tourism experiences and travel, as well as to foster international
sign language education.

HeritageLab (Slovenia) is a project that teaches established
innovation incubation methods to young people in small towns. By
connecting local heritage institutions and young innovators of
diverse backgrounds, it provides a structured incubation programme
with business and specialist mentorships, training and testing for
creating new businesses, job opportunities and innovations in the
heritage sector. The principle aim behind all activities is to
improve accessibility, digital solutions, sustainability and
creativity.

Career Bus (Romania) aims to bring career orientation to young
people living in small urban and rural areas faced with unemployment
and population decline. In order to remedy this situation, the
Romanian team behind the project plans to kit out a bus with an
interactive space, which combines innovative technologies and
face-to-face communication. They will then travel to remote
communities and empower young people by providing them with the
careers skills they need to boost employability.

Every year the jury also looks back to the edition of the previous
year, to select the semi-finalist who showed the most impact with
their project over the last 12 months. The 2018 Impact Prize of
EUR50.000 was awarded to Mouse4All (Spain), a project that enables
people with severe physical disabilities to access an Android tablet
or smartphone without touching the screen. Whilst the world is
becoming mobile, millions of people are left out of this technology
revolution; people with motor disabilities cannot use or have
difficulty using a touch screen, the physical interface of most
mobile devices. Mouse4all enables people with severe physical
disabilities to access Android tablets and smartphones with
alternative input devices: switches, adapted mice, trackballs and
joysticks. It boosts independence and autonomy by making Android
devices and all installed applications accessible.

In a first for the European Social Innovation Competition, the
Awards Ceremony featured a Funders' Fair earlier in the day, where
all finalists and semi-finalists were given the opportunity to meet
and network with investors. The goal of the fair was to introduce
participants to the funding landscape, giving them an opportunity to
network directly with both various types of funders and social
entrepreneurs who have successfully secured different types of
investment.

After the Funders Fair, all finalists were invited to pitch their
project in front of the audience and to showcase their ideas at
stands throughout the afternoon.

Background on the 2018 Edition

The European Social Innovation Competition 2018 received 729
entries, from which 30 semi-finalists were selected. The projects
that made it through to the semi-final stage covered a wide range of
sectors and activities, from ideas about reinventing tourism or urban
life to innovative initiatives tackling environmental or education
challenges.Following tailored business development coaching and
participation in the social innovation mentoring academy in
Cluj-Napoca, Romania in July this year, the ten finalists were
selected and the three winners announced today. All the 2018
semi-finalists will be eligible to apply for the EUR50.000 Impact
Prize next year. This award recognises the project from the previous
year's edition that demonstrates the most significant social impact
achieved within the past year.

The Jury Panel

The international jury consisted of: Mikkel Andersen from Danish
Social Innovation Club (Denmark), Sabine Biesheuvel from BlueCity
(The Netherlands), Tuija Hirvikoski from Laurea University of Applied
Sciences (Finland), Mirna Karzen from Social Innovation Lab
(Croatia), Norbert Kunz from Social Impact (Germany), Vincenzo
Linarello from Goel (Italy), Carina Lopes from d-LAB (Spain), Klaus
Schuch from Centre for Social Innovation (Austria), Stavros
Tsompanidis from Phee (Greece), Taoufik Vallipuram from OuiShare
(France) and Magdalena Zawodny-Barabanow from Urbact Network
BoostInno (Poland). Their profiles are available here:
https://eusic.challenges.org/judging-panel/.

The 2018 Trophy

This year's European Social Innovation Competition trophies were
designed and produced by Paris-based artist William Amor.

William Amor created Les Créations Messagères to share a valuable
story - one of social conscience. Creating beauty and art using
abandoned waste materials, his artistic signature reveals itself
through the transformation of plastic pollution into beautiful floral
arrangements. These delicate, lifelike and tailor-made botanical
sculptures communicate valuable messages, used in fashion, design,
and artistic installations, creating scenery filled with poetry. This
year's design very much captures the ethos of the competition's 2018
theme of empowering young people to participate fully in a changing
economy, representing the growth and sustainability being rooted in
local communities by the projects.

More information about EUSIC

The European Social Innovation Competition is an initiative of the
European Commission that awards three EUR50.000 prizes per year to
the most innovative ideas developed to address societal issues in EU
Member States and Horizon 2020 associated countries. This year's
theme RE:THINK LOCAL was looking for ideas to empower young people to
seize and create opportunities in their local area.

The Competition takes place every year - each time with a
different theme. It is held in memory of the Portuguese innovator
Diogo Vasconcelos. Individuals, organisations and companies from all
EU Member States and Horizon 2020 associated countries can
participate. It promotes social innovation and provides a great
opportunity for people to prototype, develop, and launch their ideas
and projects.

The Competition is organised by the European Commission with
support from Nesta, Kennisland, the European Network of Living Labs,
Ashoka and Scholz & Friends.

For information on earlier editions and winning projects, visit
http://eusic.challenges.org.

Questions about the Competition can be sent to
info@socialinnovationprize.eu

Follow the Competition on Twitter: @EUSocialInnov #diogochallenge

Subscribe to the Competition newsletter here:
http://eusic.challenges.org/newsletter/

Contact:
info@socialinnovationprize.eu

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