Social innovation is about transforming the challenges our societies face into opportunities to create new solutions, business models, jobs, and more sustainable and inclusive growth. The European Commission believes social innovation can lead to higher quality public services, value for money in the public sector, and savings for public budgets. The European Social Innovation Competition was created to showcase and support the best ideas that tackle societal issues across the continent. It is designed to support change through a bottom-up, co-creative, and participatory process at the local level.

In response to digitization’s transformative effect on society and the labor market, this year’s Competition aims to “reboot” equality and ensure technology is used to allow everyone in Europe to benefit from the opportunities created by technological change. The 2017 theme was designed to inspire Europeans to provide fresh, energetic approaches to digital inclusion, connectivity, and skills development.

Economic growth should not benefit the lucky few, but should also provide opportunities for all. The competition this year enables inclusive growth by encouraging ideas to equip people with the skills they need to be able to compete in a changing economy.  It is our aim that innovators will create business models that allow everyone to equally seize the opportunities offered by technological change.

The competition was open to entrepreneurs, social innovators, students, designers, makers, tech enthusiasts, educators, and people from diverse backgrounds from across Europe.

Nominees include:

  • Buildx: Democratizing Housing Production
  • Wayfindr: Empowering Vision Impaired People to Navigate the World Independently by Tiernan Kenny
  • Mouse4all: Alternative Input Devices to Access the Knowledge

Read the full article about the 2017 European Social Innovation Competition by Grzegorz Drozd and Carolina Gario at Social Innovations Journal.