GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Projects should:

• Set up an inclusive mechanism to harvest social innovation ideas. They should issue calls for ideas that are business and industry driven, providing innovative solutions improving the resilience and preparedness of EU businesses in EU policy priority areas and are bottom-up in their approach, involving users and citizens. The following eligibility criterions should be used:
• serving at least one EU priority,
• combining technological and social innovation,
• engaging society and industry,
• demonstrated market knowledge and market demand for the solution;
• offering an innovative solution.
• Ensure a broad dissemination of the calls to reach out to local social innovators with the support, for instance, of the national competence centres for social innovation funded under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI).
• Select approximately 30 of the best entries, using announced eligibility criterions to rank entries. They should award approximately €100000.
• Turn these ideas into pre-market demonstration projects through a process of co-design and co-development, engaging civil society; start-ups, SMEs, mid-caps, and large corporations; academia; public authorities; philanthropists; impact financiers, etc. to the extent appropriate. The consortium should have extensive knowledge in business incubation to be able to provide capacity-building support. Synergies with the ongoing EU funded projects on Incubators for inclusive and social entrepreneurship are encouraged.
• Monitor the testing of the pre-market demonstration projects to demonstrate and document that the social innovation achieves investment grade.
• Help pre-market demonstration projects to find investors through the portfolio of activities (e.g., matchmaking events, dragon-pitches, auctions, etc.) that they consider best suited.

Two thirds of the EU contribution should go to awards to selected entries and to the financing of pre-market demonstration projects. Applicants are encouraged to envisage additional sources of financing.