Call for Applications SozialMarie 2016

Invited to submit

This call for applications is addressed to projects that deal with social problems of the present. The projects must be proven in use and must have a future before them. At the time of submission, they must already have been sufficiently implemented and they must still be running. Applications from private initiatives, commercial firms, the social economy (civil society initiatives, NGOs, NPOs, associations) and public administration are eligible. Projects from all of Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic will be accepted. For practical reasons, in Slovakia, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia and Germany, projects must not be more than 300 km away from Vienna (as the crow flies).

Submission modalities and time limit

The application period starts on Monday 9th of November 2015. Complete application form must be submitted online on SozialMarie’s website on 26th of January 2016 at 23:55 at the latest. Please submit the project and not the project bearing institution. Fill in the application form in English or in German and submit it in time and online. Applications from Czech Republic or Hungary need to be submitted additionally to their submission in Czech or Hungarian language as well in a second language which is English. Please consider as well the terms and conditions SozialMarie 2016.

Selection process

The selection of the winning projects happens in three phases.

Submitted material is first of all screened for compliance with conditions of participation. Open questions may at this stage be addressed by telephone or email. Nóra Somlyódy and Miklos Tamási respectively Linda Janatová and Gabriela Drastichová, our on-site project evaluators, then pre-select the Hungarian respectively the Czech projects.

Out of these and all other submitted projects, Anna Thier, Bernhard Litschauer-Hofer and jury coordinator Petra Radeschnig select 25 projects to be submitted to the expert jury. Each jury member can then eliminate one of the proposed projects and each can also nominate up to three additional projects. From this second phase result the 39 (at most) nominated projects to be published on www.sozialmarie.org at end February. Nominations for SozialMarie can be used by submitters for publicity.

In a third phase, SozialMarie’s expert jury meets twice to determine the 15 winning projects. Jury decisions are consensual. The prize winners will be announced and presented on 1st of May at a public award ceremony in Vienna.
SozialMarie-criteria for social innovation

In the evaluation and ranking of submitted projects the jury will award high marks according to the following criteria:

Innovation in Project Idea – Novelty
• Does the project embody a new social approach or offer new solutions?
• Is the project about new ways of looking at a social problem?
• Does the project address target groups that have previously received little attention?

Innovation in Accessing Target Groups – Involvement
• What is the concrete and enduring use of the project for the target group?
• Does the project further the potential of the target group?
• How is the target group implicated in the project?
• Does the project contribute to society’s esteem for the target group?

Innovation in the Realisation of the Project – Effectiveness
• Does project realisation happen in an inventive, resourceful, creative and courageous way?
• What effects – and on whom – of this social innovation can be observed?
• Does the project change with changing needs? For example as to the target group, the way of approaching the issue, or a changing project environment?
• Is there cooperation between different disciplines / competencies / professional groups?

Innovation in Public Perception – Serving as an Example
• How is the project integrated into local and regional environments?
• Does the project foster dialogue / cooperation with other institutions / organisations?
• Have other organisations, media, sponsors, politicians been made curious?
• Have new paths been taken in dealing with the “Outside world”?

Award ceremony

Each year, outstanding socially innovative projects have the chance to win one of fifteen prizes with values of 15,000 Euros (1st prize), 10,000 Euros (2nd prize), 5,000 Euros (3rd prize) and twelve times 2,000 Euros. All submitted projects are invited to the public award ceremony that is held on 1 st of May 2016 at 18:00 in the Large Auditorium of ORF Radio Kulturhaus, Argentinierstraße 30a, 1040 Vienna.