Romanian, Slovenian and Italian projects announced as the winners of the European Social Innovation Competition 2018

Career Bus, HeritageLab and Ulisse have been announced as the 3 winners of the European Social Innovation Competition 2018 – RE:THINK Local, during an awards ceremony held today in Brussels.

Selected from over 700 eligible applicants coming from 39 different countries, each project will receive a €50,000 prize from the European Commission.

 

Youth unemployment is a persistent problem in Europe. Fresh thinking is required, which is why this year’s edition of the competition looked for solutions that take a place-based approach. Different places have different histories of industrial change, migration, regeneration and ‘brain drain’, which affect young people and the whole community. Each place has its own challenges and assets arising from its unique story. Europeans were asked to consider what’s available in their local community and what’s presenting a challenge. How could this be used to design solutions that ensure young people can fully participate in the economy and society?

 

 

Congratulations to the three winners:

• Career Bus – Career orientation on wheels for rural youth (Romania)
• HeritageLab – Incubation of new businesses in the heritage sector (Slovenia)
• Ulisse – Network of young deaf tour guides (Italy)

 

The competition also awarded an Impact Prize of €50,000 to the semi-finalist from the 2017 edition who has achieved the greatest impact in the past year. In 2017, Equality Rebooted looked for ideas to ensure everyone in Europe benefits from the opportunities created by technological change. Mouse4All (Spain) took home the Impact Prize following outstanding results in empowering people with motor disabilities to use Android apps without needing to use a touchscreen.

 

 

 

The 2019 edition of the competition will launch early next year. To keep up to date with the competition: follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the newsletter.

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The European Social Innovation Competition, launched in memory of Diogo Vasconcelos, is a challenge prize run by the European Commission across EU member states and countries associated to Horizon 2020, now in its sixth edition. The competition is delivered by a consortium of partners led by Nesta and including Kennisland, Ashoka, European Network of Living Labs and Scholz & Friends.