European Social Innovation Academy 2016 kicks off in Berlin

This week, the thirty semi-finalists of the European Social Innovation Competition who were selected by a jury out of 1095 entries will meet in Berlin for an intense three-day Academy. During the Academy, the semi-finalists will follow workshops, coaching sessions, engage in discussions and explore local initiatives. The competition is organised by Nesta, Matter&Co, Impact Hub, Shipyard and KL. Kennisland is responsible for the content of the Academy.

This year, the theme of the competition is ‘Integrated Futures’, addressing the unprecedented influx of migrants and refugees in Europe over a short period of time. The call was launched in Amsterdam in February 2016 and invited social innovators++Social Innovation and KennislandRead more about our work with social innovation here. from all over Europe to submit their ideas for the inclusion of migrants and refugees.  

The projects of the semi-finalists range from online interventions like Digital Skills Assessment, to employment projects like HIRE, or education projects such as Helsingør. Have a look at all the impressive semi-finalist projects here.

During the Academy this week, workshops on topics like scaling, social impact measurement, business models, communications and pitching will be convened by experts in the field. Furthermore, all the teams will meet up with their personal coach for an offline session to follow up the remote coaching that has already taken place. The Academy is supported by the BMW Foundation and the Allianz Stiftungsforum.

For organising this event, we are fortunate enough to tap into the knowledge and skills of a wide community by collaborating with organisations like Phineo, FASE, Give Something Back to Berlin, Camp Group, the Social Entrepreneurship Akademie, The Changer, Rainmaking Loft and Social Impact for the workshops and coaching. The participants of the Academy will also pay site visits to meet local Berlin initiatives like Kiron, Migration Hub, Refugees on Rails and Sharehaus Refugio.

Following the academy, ten finalists will be selected, three of which will each be awarded a €50,000 prize at the awards ceremony in Brussels in November 2016.

Follow the latest updates and competition news on Twitter by following @EUSocialInnov and #diogochallenge.