White Tigers in Action: 15 Promising Projects Invited to Social Innovation Market at #SIF2025

The Social Innovation Forum 2025, taking place on 1–2 October in Brussels, will feature one of its most dynamic elements yet: the Social Innovation Market. It is a space dedicated to showcasing 15 outstanding initiatives from across Europe that are making a measurable difference in people’s lives. 

These initiatives represent what many in the Forum’s community now proudly call White Tigers – bold, determined social innovators working to improve employment, education, skills, and social inclusion. The metaphor, first introduced during a keynote at last year’s Forum, resonated deeply and became a shared symbol of rare leadership, persistence, and impact in social innovation. These White Tigers are not only visible – they’re active, effective, and leading real change.

Space for Practice, Not Just Ideas

The Social Innovation Market offers a hands-on environment to explore how innovation works in practice. Each of the 15 projects will host a stand, giving participants the chance to learn about their approaches, ask questions, and discover how similar solutions could be adapted in different countries and contexts. 

This year’s selection includes projects focused on supporting NEETs (young people not in employment, education, or training), building future-ready skills, addressing material deprivation, and promoting social inclusion at system level, each rooted in local realities and committed to long-term impact. 

“The vision of the Social Innovation Market is to unite a vibrant community of social innovators, ESF+ Managing Authorities, representatives from the European Commission, researchers, educators, and other key stakeholders. It aims to be a dynamic space for exchanging ideas, fostering mutual learning, building capacities, and forging meaningful connections to drive social change,” says Reda Beržinskaitė, coordinator of the Social Innovation Match (SIM) database at the European Competence Centre for Social Innovation. 

Meet the 15 Selected Projects

The 15 featured initiatives were chosen from a pool of 93 nominations, each evaluated by both national or EU-level validators and thematic experts, based on relevance, novelty, and potential for impact.  

Explore the 15 social innovation initiatives selected to participate in the Social Innovation Market at SIF2025. Each project showcases inventive and impactful solutions advancing employment, education, skills, and social inclusion across Europe: 

• Tracking What Matters (Generation, Ireland). A data framework that tracks learner outcomes up to five years post-program to improve quality, tailor support, and ensure long-term impact in vocational education and training.
• Social Impact Generator (SocialTech Lab, Cyprus). A peace innovation hub in Cyprus’s divided capital, transforming a buffer zone container into a space for entrepreneurship, youth empowerment, and inclusive dialogue. 
• Long-Term Unemployed Territories (Territoires zéro chômeur de longue durée, France). A model demonstrating that community-based, socially and ecologically useful jobs can be created at the local level without significant cost to the public.
• Bureaux du Cœur (France). An initiative connecting businesses and employees to support individuals experiencing homelessness, working toward a society where no one is left without shelter. 
• Secret Sound (Spain). A startup offering audiovisual accessibility services for the deaf and deafblind, removing barriers to cultural and educational participation.
• Working Integration in Textile Waste Management (Social Cooperative Humana Nova, Croatia). An approach fostering employment and environmental responsibility by engaging marginalized groups in textile waste recovery and reuse initiatives.
• ICT-Based Diagnostic Tools (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary). An engaging online tool that quickly and accurately assesses cognitive control in children with special educational needs.
• Experiences of Social Inclusion Scale (ESIS, Finland). A decision-making instrument that measures social inclusion experiences, supporting research, policy evaluation, and inclusive practice.
• CEO-Y: Creating Employment Opportunities for Youth (Arrabal-AID, Spain). A mobility and skills-building programme offering NEETs 70 days of learning and work experience to improve labour market participation and social inclusion.
• C.O.P.E.: Capabilities, Opportunities, Places, and Engagement (Federazione Trentina della Cooperazione, Italy). A holistic intervention using social prescribing and link workers to support NEETs through person-centred community approaches.
• Competence Network “Women’s Future – Digitalization – New Work” (Women Foundation Steyr, Austria). A competence network providing digital training and new work models to improve employment opportunities for women in rural areas. 
• EDKI – Innovative Crayons (Regional Centre for Social Policy in Cracow, Poland). Innovative and effective crayons that help children develop fine motor skills through engaging exercises.
• ubbu (Unicorn Treasure, Portugal). An edtech platform integrating STEAM and sustainable development goals, offering ready-made, curriculum-aligned computer science content for children and support for teachers.
• Solidary Basic Income (Berlin Senate Administration of Labour, Social Affairs, Equality, Integration, Diversity and Antidiscrimination, Germany). A scheme supporting the long-term unemployed with socially impactful job placements, career training, and integrated support services. 
• SenjoroGO (National Institute for Social Integration, Lithuania). An IT solution streamlining home care services through time tracking, scheduling, activity logging, and automatic reporting. 

Social Innovations that Scale

While the Market celebrates local action, its true ambition is European in scale. It is designed to connect practitioners with peers, policymakers, funders, and managing authorities, creating the conditions for replication, scaling, and system change. 

“These 15 case studies present just a snapshot of the incredibly varied projects showcased on the SIM database. They serve not only as a celebration of the incredible achievements of social innovators across the EU but perhaps, more importantly, as real evidence of the meaningful impact social innovation can have and the crucial role it plays in implementing social policy across all regions. The European Union has invested in social innovation as a policy tool because it recognises the enormous contribution it makes to tackling society’s wicked problems, involving the community as co-creators rather than seeing them solely as beneficiaries,” says Mark Majewsky Anderson, SIM EU validator at the European Competence Centre for Social Innovation. 

Explore More in the SIM Database

All 15 projects, along with more than 350 others, are featured in the Social Innovation Match database, a growing collection of innovative practices shared across Europe. The database helps identify what works and supports others in transferring or building on proven methods. 

The Social Innovation Market at SIF2025 is more than a moment of recognition. It’s a call to engage with the people behind these projects, to listen to their insights, and to consider how their work might inform your own. These White Tigers in action show what’s possible when creativity meets commitment.