The 2021 edition of the European Social Innovation Competition calls for creative and sustainable ideas to face the twin green and digital transitions.
Since 2013, the European Commission’s (EC) Directorate-General for entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises, supported by the European Innovation Council (EIC), has been awarding three socially innovative projects per year with a Social Innovation Challenge Prize of €50’000 each. The aim of the European Social Innovation Competition (EUSIC) is to incentivise, support, and reward the development of ideas that tackle societal challenges while fostering sustainability and inclusivity. It further aims at facilitating a network of innovators. Targeting a wide range of actors including citizens, businesses and start-ups, as well as universities and other education and training institutions, the initiative supports mainly early-stage projects. While last year’s call focused on ‘reimagined fashion’, the current competition challenges social innovators to come up with creative and sustainable approaches to skills intelligence and development, thus contributing to job creation, economic growth, and European competitiveness.
Under the topic ‘Skills for tomorrow – Shaping a green and digital future’, proposals should aim at understanding what skills exist at present, what kind of skills are needed in the future and how they are best developed in order to boost Europe’s green and digital transitions. Taking into account their own environmental impact, the social innovations should address skills needs and gaps as well as approaches for skills development and training. The best projects will be selected according to their degree of innovation, impact, sustainability, scalability, and replicability.
Interested individuals, groups and organisations from EU Member States and from countries associated to Horizon Europe can submit their proposals (from concept or early-stage ideas to prototype stage) until 12 May 2021. As per rules introduced in the EIC 2021 Work Programme, applicants from countries associated to Horizon 2020, including Switzerland, are also eligible for this call. Semi-finalists (up to 30 entries) will have the possibility to receive coaching and take part in the Social Innovation Academy (July to September 2021, see details in the call). In the finalist phase, the participants will be asked to submit a ‘Detailed Development Plan’ of their ideas until 24 September. The best three projects will be announced by the end of the year. In addition, the same call also covers a Social Innovation Impact Prize for the project that has achieved the greatest impact during the EUSIC 2020 edition.
With a budget of €10 billion for 2021-2027 under Horizon Europe, the EIC supports ground-breaking research and innovation projects through several funding instruments, which, in addition to the EUSIC, include four more EIC Prizes rewarding Europe’s leading innovators. Furthermore, the current edition of the EUSIC is only one of many initiatives introduced by the EC to confront the challenges of skills shortages, gaps and mismatches caused by rapid demographic changes and the move towards a green and digital economy, a trend that has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Acknowledging the importance of investment in up- and reskilling, EU leaders have placed skills at the heart of its Industrial Strategy and the recovery plan for Europe.
In the field of education and training, the European Skills Agenda, along with the Youth Employment Support package and the Digital Education Action Plan, offer concrete approaches towards lifelong learning and up-and reskilling. The Pact for Skills, for instance, aims to identify the skills needs of tomorrow, including green and digital skills, and co-develop solutions to meet them (see SwissCore article). Among the latest EU-level initiatives to enhance skilling opportunities and employability are the launch of a public consultation on micro-credentials (open until 13 July) and on a possible EU initiative on individual learning accounts (open until 16 July).