The European Social Innovation Competition (EUSIC) 2022: the winners

Efficient Energy Technology winning with the project SolMate Pro (Austria)

The project provides energy storage (a pressing issue regarding the energy transition to renewables) in urban areas with a great ease of use. SolMate Pro’s main key feature is simplicity, providing a plug-in energy storage which is installed by the final consumer by plugging it in. It can be shipped directly to the consumer (no electrician, no construction site, no bureaucracy) and is installed within 30 minutes. A second technological key feature is Line-Battery-Interface (LiBIf): power electronics that can transfer electric power from the power socket to the battery and back with controlled power (LiBIf provides the exact amount of energy, that is detected by NetD. 

ReLearn (Italy)

ReLearn is an innovative start-up created with the aim of using Artificial Intelligence to help companies and municipalities reduce their environmental impact by monitoring the waste they produce. ReLearn uses technology to help people make the right choice and your waste is your choice. 

Sostre Cívic (Spain)

Sostre Cívic successfully implements an alternative housing model, fairer and more accessible, non-profit, non-speculative and transformative. Sostre Cívic is a right to use housing cooperative that keeps the property of the buildings beyond the development phase and promotes communal living. Currently it is made of more than 1000 members and more than 100 are already co-living in our innovative and sustainable buildings.

Sofia2Go Ltd (Bulgaria)

The winner of the Impact Prize is Sofia2Go Ltd (former name: Sofia2Go) from Bulgaria. The jury member panel has decided to award this digital platform connecting foodies with good food leftovers thanks to their clear social mission and its impact-driven activities leading to long-term change

The Challenge Prize

Josine Bakkes

Over the last 8 years, Josine has founded, led, initiated and grown dozens of small local- to international platforms, of which circle17, Hack the Crisis Austria, Global Shapers Salzburg, and the Circle of Intrapreneurs. All aimed at developing ideas that move people, brands, and markets toward a sustainable future. Her work has strong roots in Austria as the former head of social impact at AustrianStartups and representative for the Social Entrepreneurship Network Austria, after which she moved to France. Josine is a Horizon Europe Innovation Expert with the EISMEA, a jury member for the World Summit Award, and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper. 

Aurélien Leblay

Aurélien is a local economic development consultant focusing on green and circular economy. He has previously worked in EU projects design and management, social and community work, strategy consulting, African SMEs investment. He founded Emeki Consulting in 2019 to promote a waste and carbon free local economic development and highlight the benefits of green economy at local level. He is also an external expert for the European Commission regarding economic development, SMEs support and research and innovation programmes. Fascinated by the systemic and technological dimension of the green-digital transition, he engages on these topics and others through opinion papers for national or international media (La Tribune, Euractiv, L’Obs, Africa at LSE). 

Marta Rey-García

Marta (Ph.D., Complutense University, Madrid; MBA, Columbia University, NY) is a tenured Associate Professor of Management at the School of Economics and Business of the University of A Coruña (UDC), Spain. Since 2011, she is the director of the Inditex-UDC Chair of Sustainability and of its Graduate Course on Sustainability and Social Innovation. Her interests lie at the crossroads of the governance of civil society organizations, business-society relations, philanthropy, sustainability, and social innovation. She has been work-package leader of the “ITSSOIN -Social Innovation and Civic Engagement” research project (European Commission, 7th Framework Program).