I-SICSAccording to the EU’s definition “Social enterprises seek to serve the community’s interest (social, societal, environmental objectives) rather than profit maximization. They often have an innovative nature, through the goods or services they offer, and through the organization or production methods they resort to. They often employ society’s most fragile members (socially excluded persons). They thus contribute to social cohesion, employment and the reduction of inequalities.”

We are surrounded by a number of urging social issues today: social exclusion, poverty, high unemployment rates, aging population, deteriorating environment and many more. These problems are unfortunately present everywhere in the world, and we are faced with them in our immediate vicinity as well. Our project aims at raising the awareness of university students to the most important problems of their regions, and at urging them to think in a socially responsible way, so that they become active and committed actors of their homelands.

Through this project our long term goal is to find answers to the most important social challenges of our world, by making the future’s entrepreneurs and leaders aware of these, and by enabling them today to make a change for a more equal future.

The innovative character of the project can be discovered in three main aspects. Firstly, the adaptation of good practices in the field of entrepreneurship and student competitions to a new field, that of social innovation. Secondly, the use of the International Social Innovation Competition as a communication channel, using is as an awareness raising campaign to draw the attention of individuals, companies, media, decision-makers and stakeholders on various other levels to the most important social issues and to urge them to act in a socially responsible way. And thirdly, the creation of a Social Innovation Competition Kit, which will be a ready-to-use package of various materials that can be applied anywhere in Europe.

The project will be carried out in cooperation with the following partners:

  • University of Pannonia – Faculty of Business and Economics (Hungary)
  • CVO Antwerpen (Belgium)
  • Europa Consortium (Hungary)
  • BIC Group s.r.o. (Slovakia)
  • Regional Development Agency of Slavonia and Baranja (Croatia)
  • Universitat Rovira I Virgili (Spain)