Call for Applications: Social Impact Award Switzerland 2017

The Social Impact Award (SIA) Switzerland 2017 is an initiative of Impact Hub Geneva. The program is designed to raise awareness, engage and provide young entrepreneurs from the French speaking part of Switzerland with knowledge, skills and networks to realize their ideas which solve social and environmental issues.

SIA Switzerland offers three one-day workshops on the themes of idea generation, business planning and business modelling in four Romandie cities (Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel and Fribourg). Following the workshops, the organising team SIA Switzerland will launch a competition for the incubation of the best ideas. Participants in the workshops, who are under the age of 35 will be invited to submit their ideas and projects. These will be evaluated based on the criteria of social impact, innovation, feasibility, and team.

Twelve teams will be nominated as winners and will participate in the first incubation program of three months. They will be supported by mentors comprising of successful entrepreneurs, employees of well-established corporates including UBS, and professional business consultants. In addition, they will have access to the worldwide entrepreneurial community of Impact Hub and SIA. The objective of these three months is to allow each team to transform its idea into a viable business model.

Moreover, participation in the incubation program will provide participants with transformative educational learning tools, concepts, entrepreneurial practices, and teamwork. This will enable them to realize their own ability to have a positive impact on society. SIA will create a favourable environment for constructive synergies creation, from which feasible solutions to the great challenges of our time will emerge.

According to Impact Hub Geneva: “Today’s youth is the most knowledgeable generation that ever lived and attendance in tertiary education keeps increasing. We believe the entrepreneurial process to be the ideal mean to best exploit their knowledge, their energy and fulfil their desire to have a positive impact on today’s society. The path of developing a social venture helps students connect with their aspirations for a better society and their creative talent”.

Upon completion of the incubation program in September, the jury will nominate four best teams as winners of SIA Switzerland 2017. They will be bestowed with a cash prize of CHF 4000 and will get active support from a SIA community of experts as well as gain international recognition. Furthermore, they will be invited to participate in the SIA Summit from 1 to 3 November 2017 in Belgrade (Serbia), where winners from all the participating countries in the world will meet to deepen their expertise.

Registration is now open until 4 June.

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