For the 7th consecutive year, JA Europe and NN Group partnered through the Social Innovation Relay to empower young people to tackle societal challenges by using innovation and entrepreneurship. A total of 13,086 students have been involved in the activities implemented in collaboration with NN Group and 246 NN Group volunteers from across 10 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia and Spain. On 22 June 2021 the 10 national winners from the participating countries joined an online competition to present their business ideas to a panel of international judges.
The jury was composed of Lonneke Roza, Community Investment, NN Group; Melchior de Ridder, Head of Retail Platform, NN Group; Roberta Bosurgi, CEO European Venture Philanthropy Association; Eva Birinyi, Head of Sector at the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA); and Tessa Tippersma, CEO and Founder of Cracklingsoap. Scribo Markers (Slovakia), Team Esperanza (Singapore) and Pet-Link (Greece) came up with the most innovative ideas that combined societal impact with market potential, in an event that marked the culmination of the Social Innovation Relay. The programme helps young people think like social entrepreneurs, giving them access to the latest technologies and showing them that starting their own business can be a viable career choice.
“The future is rooted in social innovation, as organizational legitimacy increasingly depends on its contribution to society. If your concept is not created to explicitly make a positive impact, it won’t be sustainable. The way Social Innovation Relay prepares these innovative youngsters for the current-day world makes a big impact. I would like to highly encourage all participants in this final to bring their ideas to the market.” ~ Melchior De Ridder – Head of Retail Platform, NN Group
Read more here.
