Armenian Caritas is proud to announce that the project, “YouthSmartVillage”, has been selected as one of the semi-finalists and is looking forward to representing Armenia at such a prestigious competition. The project aims to establishment of demo-model of “smart village”, which will ensure employment and learning opportunities for youth, decentralization of IT sphere, improvements in spheres of local self-government and agriculture through the establishment of youth innovative technology laboratory in remote village of Armenia.

Competition was rather stiff, too, with only 30 projects selected to enter the next phase of the competition out of 731 eligible entries from 39 countries. Next stop for “Youth Smart Village” and the other semi-finalists is the intensive three-day training programme called the Academy, which this year takes place in the beautiful city of Cluj in Romania. Here projects receive instruction from experienced social innovators and entrepreneurs, and have the opportunity to develop what for many is just an idea at this stage into a viable business proposition. They are all hoping to secure a place among the ten finalists in the next selection round and to ultimately.

“Youth Smart Village” is the innovative model of community development and youth involvement in Armenia, in which the Innovative Technology Laboratory will be established; young people will gain knowledge in micro-engineering, 3D modeling, WEB programming; they will be able to design and product automatic systems, create online sales platform; form “smart” community as demo examples by investment products in the village for two purposes: to make local government transparent and participatory and to increase and diversify agricultural productivity ensuring its cost-effectiveness.

The European Social Innovation Competition is an initiative of the European Commission that awards three 50.000 Euro prizes per year to the most innovative ideas developed to address social issues in EU Member States and beyond. Now in its seventh year, the theme this time is RE:THINK LOCAL, calling on projects that make use of the local characteristics of a place in order to create opportunities for young people in our changing economy. The European Social Innovation Competition takes place every year – each time with a different theme. It is held in memory of the Portuguese innovator Diogo Vasconcelos. Individuals, organisation and companies from all EU Member States and Horizon 2020 associated countries can participate. It is a great opportunity for inspired people to get their social innovation idea off the ground.