THE SOCIAL CHALLENGES INNOVATION PLATFORM GOES LIVE – OPEN SESAME!

The Social Challenges Innovation Platform has been released at the “OPEN ECOSYSTEMS FOR INNOVATION” event, 6 July 2017, Enghien-Les-Bains (France). SocialChallenges.eu is now open for Public Authorities, Private Companies and Third Sector Organisations looking for sustainable solutions to their social and environmental challenges.

META Group, the European BIC Network and Impact Hub together with the European Commission - DG Grow and the Executive Agency for SMEs (EASME) - unveiled the Social Challenges Innovation Platform for the so called “challenge owners”. These are European stakeholders from the public, private and third sector committed to find a solution to a social and/or environmental challenge affecting them and their communities.

As mentioned during the event by Joe Greaney, Director of WestBIC, the platform is a powerful tool to burst the “social innovation bubble” and let all stakeholders to take part in the resolution of societal and environmental challenges. Particularly, Social Challenges Innovation Platform aims to unlock the social and economic impact European entrepreneurs can generate today.

Challenges can from today on be uploaded onto the platform and get visibility across Europe in order to find the best innovative solutions coming from the entrepreneurial world. We’ll help you in defining and prioritising social and societal challenges, we’ll provide you with visibility across Europe, we’ll support you in finding the right solutions fitting your needs. Moreover, you could benefit from the € 2.4 million grant scheme we make available to translate your challenges into practical and scalable solutions.

30.000€ of  grants will be allocated to 81 solutions, provided that a maximum of 3 solutions per challenge can be funded. The call for grants opens on September 15th and will be open till June 15th 2018. During this period we’ll set 3 cut off dates, when the platform will be “frozen” and evaluations will take place for those challenges that have received a minimum of 3 solutions and that have been online for at least 90 days.

December 15th 2017 is the first cut-off date. If you want to be part of it, ensure to submit your challenge by September 10th! This will give us the time to screen it and put it online by September 15th, when we’ll launch the call for solutions.

Uploading a challenge is very simple: sign in, create your profile online, and fill in the challenge form in all its components.  If you need support, we are here to help! Get in touch with SocialChallenges.eu partners or our local nodes.

Go to SocialChallenges.eu and upload your CHAlleNGE; let the CHANGE begin!

Learn more during the free webinar 18 July

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BACKGROUND

Social innovation is a constantly growing movement of grassroots initiatives, recognised by policy makers on different levels in Europe as an important way to tackle the increasingly-complex social and environmental challenges faced by our societies. However, the potential for social innovation to transform the way we respond to Europe's challenges still remains largely untapped.

The Social Challenges Innovation Platform[1] is designed to change that. Powered by Meta Group, EBN and Impact Hub – under the management of the Executive Agency for SMEs (EASME) and the support of the European Commission – , it aims at designing, creating and enabling an online ecosystem encouraging the interaction between social innovators and SMEs. It will help to co-develop and take up the sustainable and marketable innovations with clear social impact.

The Social Challenges Innovation Platform is:

  • 1 go-to platform, a smart environment at your service
  • 20 strategic nodes supporting challenge owners and solution providers across Europe
  • 27+ challenges supported and sponsored by a EU grant mechanism scheme
  • 81 selected solution providers (maximum 3 per challenge)
  • 2.430.000€ total grant (30000€ per selected solution provider)

HOW CAN YOU ENGAGE WITH US

SocialChallenges.eu is the house for:

  • Committed Public Authorities, Private Companies and Third Sector Organisations, willing to pilot and eventually adopt the solutions selected through the platform
  • European startups and SMEs with innovative solutions able to meet the needs expressed by challenge owners and generate clear social impact
  • Strategic partners supporting and engaging with socialCHAlleNGEs.eu initiative, either to sponsor, mentor or promote the challenges posted there and help finding the right solutions for them

If you recognise yourself in one (or more) of these profiles, get in touch & join our community of change makers!

CONTACTS

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