Conditions and selection criteria for Social Innovation Awards

Who can take part?

They can be project developers, university students or business schools, scientists, researchers and university teaching staff, as well as entrepreneurs with an innovative project, in other words, they can be individuals/professionals or companies, providing they meet the following requirements.

• Formal, material and geographical requirements. You can apply if you belong to one of the target geographical areas (Europe, the United States, Brazil, and/or the rest of Latin America) and your project is related to the challenge: “To contribute to the improvement of individuals’ quality of life and well-being”, within one of the areas of focus described in the Terms and Conditions of the call.
• Each project must be presented in the geographical area where its representative or promoting entity resides.
• At least two people must be working full-time on the project, or one full-time and two part-time.
• The product or service must already be up and running or available for purchase on the market (for projects focused on R&D, there must be a prototype that has been validated by users and which is sufficiently advanced).
• The minimum prior income or investment in the project must have exceeded €100,000 in total for the last three years, 2023, 2024, and 2025, as of the date of submission of the application.
• A 3-minute professional pitch of the project must be presented.

Selection criteria

The projects submitted will be assessed according to the following selection criteria:

1. Potential positive social impact: the project’s positive social impact will be assessed, in terms of both its size (number of people or groups affected) and its depth (solution or help for a small or large-scale problem).
2. Innovation of the project: the novelty and disruptive nature of the project submitted to the competition, and the arguments demonstrating its value and/or ingenuity as a social transformation initiative.
3. Sustainability and scalability of the projects: which will be evaluated from a technical, economic, and organizational perspective.
4. Robustness of the idea, demonstrated by results, as well as by defending the product or service against competitors.
5. Ability and experience of the team to be able to carry out the submitted project. The potential of the team is another of the determining parameters when assessing the submission. The organization understands that the sustainability and success of the project also relies on the potential of the team and its involvement.

We resolve your doubts

1. Area of application, the home country of the submitting entity or the geographical area where the project is developed? The project must submit its application in the geographical area where its representative or promoting entity resides. Equally, if the nationalities of the team members are different to the geographical areas covered in this competition, this will not exclude them from taking part providing that the project’s effective impact in any of the three abovementioned geographical regions can be demonstrated.
2. Industrial or intellectual property? The industrial and intellectual property will remain under the ownership of the entities. The prize is €100,000 for the winner and €10,000 for each of the three runners-up.
3. Who is on the judging panel? Similar profiles to previous editions: social innovation experts, impact investors, organizations and others tied to the innovation ecosystem.
4. What will happen after the awards in terms of project follow-up? The monitoring of the finalists will be done through Red Innova, the Award’s community of social entrepreneurs who contribute and generate value, managed and fostered by and for its members.