Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development, Joe O’Brien TD has launched the New Solutions Social Innovation Fund –creating better outcomes.
- Up to €2.8 million available to establish a Social Innovation Hub
- The Social Innovation Hub will act as a one-stop-shop for Social Innovation
- Minister O’Brien: “This is a fantastic opportunity for the sector to support innovative ways of addressing societal challenges whilst potentially transforming the Social Innovation Irish ecosystem.”
The overall objective of New Solutions is to enhance the social innovation ecosystem in Ireland and is co-funded through the European Social Fund + 2021-2027 (ESF+), a European initiative aimed at reducing the risk of poverty and social exclusion, with an emphasis on disadvantaged groups.
Today’s launch marks the first call for applications under the New Solutions Social Innovation Fund. It provides up to €2.8 million to establish a Social Innovation Hub over the lifetime of the Programme.
The Hub’s main objective will be to act as a One Stop Shop for supporting Social Innovations. It will provide a suite of measures to develop the Irish Social Innovations ecosystem including, raising awareness and understanding of Social Innovation, providing a range of bespoke training to build capacity, establishing communities of practice for networking within the sector, while maximising the impact of funding and developing impact measurement methodologies.
Deadline to submit applications is 5pm on Friday, 30 August 2024 , and interested parties are invited to apply to the call as a sole applicant, or as part of a consortium.
Call 2 of the New Solutions Social Innovation Fund will issue in Q1 2025 and will focus on providing grant funding to social innovators to pilot an idea, or scale up an existing project to further their impact.
Further information and how to apply is available here.