Deadline: June 11, 2024
Applications are open for the European Social Innovation Competition 2024. The European Social Innovation Competition (EUSIC) aims at stimulating the potential of social innovation to provide solutions to societal challenges and to foster sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe. This competition looks for new entrepreneurial solutions responding to the most burning social needs, creating social relationships and enabling new collaborations in an innovative way and bringing effective solutions to systemic social challenges.
The European Social Innovation Competition 2024 will focus on social innovation in Digital Democracy.
In the era of rising populism, disinformation, (deep)fake news, hate speech, polarization, radicalisation, foreign interference, and lack of political participation of groups of society, this year’s topic aims to:
- incentivise, support and reward social innovations that will help identify and tackle disinformation, encourage democratic governance models in online services, tools and business models;
- connect actors in emerging democratic practices, such as, for instance, the public consultation and deliberation platforms based on Decidim;
- promote the creation and adoption of digital commons such as open source, open hardware and open data solutions;
- raise awareness amongst the public about democratic values in the virtual and digital world;
- build grassroots communities and strengthen civil society, based on participation, collaboration, deliberation and building spaces for dialogue based on democratic values
- and develop digital organisational and/or business models driven by democratic principles as well as supporting equal access, open and shared technologies.
Prizes
- The competition will directly support the three solutions that best tackle the defined challenge with a prize of EUR 75,000, EUR 50,000 and EUR 25,000 for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ranked winners.
Eligibility
- Open, among others, to non-profit and for-profit organisations, such as entrepreneurs and social enterprises, corporate responsibility departments of private companies, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), educational institutions and universities.
- Applicant has to be a natural person, or a legal entity established in one of the Member States (including overseas countries and territories, (OCTs)) or Associated Countries to Horizon Europe.
Evaluation Criteria
If admissible and eligible, the applications will be evaluated and ranked against the following award criteria:
- Degree of innovation: the degree to which any new product, service and/or organisational or business model is new for its given context in connection to the challenge of the competition. The idea must be new and innovative within its given socio-economic and geographical context;
- Usability and inclusiveness: whether the proposed solution is easy to use and affordable and can engage the largest part of EU citizens, irrespective of their background or computer skills;
- Positive social Impact: the potential of the proposal to tackle the competition challenge, fostering collaboration and partnerships with relevant stakeholders. The applicant must demonstrate how the proposed solution will contribute to solving year’s challenge;
- Viability and sustainability: the financial and environmental sustainability of the proposal, including a sustainability plan to make the solution durable in the medium- or long-term;
- Scalability and replicability: the idea’s potential to scale and be replicated across sectors, governance levels or at regional, national, European or global level;
- Decentralisation and governance: improvements in transparency and accountability (while respecting privacy and/or anonymity).
Application
Applications must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.
For more information, visit EUSIC.
