Glowee (France), Speak Social (Portugal), iNex Circular (France), Chrysalix Technologie – Bioflex (United Kingdom), Sensovida (Spain) and QTrobot Autism Therapy Store (Luxembourg) are the winners of the Social Innovation Tournament 2018 which took place on 23 October in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Glowee and Speak Social received the first and second prize in the general category. INex Circular and Chrysalix Technologies – Bioflex received the special prize for projects focusing on sustainable development with special emphasis on circular economy, and Sensovida from Spain and QTrobot Autism Therapy Store from Luxembourg were selected for an EIB Institute financed residency at the IRIS Social Incubator (Incubadora Regional de Inovacao Social) for up to two members of their teams and for a period of between three and six months. IRIS is a Regional Social Innovation Incubator fostering regional development through social innovation, recently launched by the EIB Institute and PortusPark.
Glowee offers a sustainable living light source powered by waste products and producing reusable biomass, in order to illuminate our world by harnessing the natural power of bioluminescence (natural properties of animals) to produce light. Glowee also won a voucher to receive subsequent advice from EY Transaction Advisory Services in Brussels.
Speak Social is a social tech start-up that promotes the social inclusion of migrants and refugees by connecting them with locals through a language and culture exchange programme to which everyone can apply in order to share their language and learn a new one.
iNex Circular, the “Tinder of Waste”, is a platform that enables one company’s waste to become the raw material of others.
Chrysalix Technologie – Bioflex is a solvent process that uses unwanted waste wood as a very cheap raw material to produce clean and low-cost chemicals, fuels and materials.
Sensovida is an advanced telecare solution that enables elderly people to live independently and enjoy life in their own homes.
QTrobot Autism Therapy Store is an expressive humanoid robot with an intuitive user interface and therapeutic application to address the economic and social challenges of autism.
Trigger Systems (Portugal) and iNex Circular (France) will benefit from the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship programme in the framework of a partnership between the Institute and INSEAD Business School started in 2016.
Fifteen finalists from ten countries had initially been selected for the Tournament from 212 proposals submitted by applicants from 31 countries. The 15 projects participated in the SIT Mentoring Bootcamp, from June 27th to June 28th, where experts on business and social entrepreneurship offered them practical advice on improving all aspects of their projects and prepared them to pitch their projects.
This year’s edition took place on 23 October in Copenhagen, Denmark. The call for projects for the 2019 Social Innovation Tournament will start on 1st February 2019.
