Deadline: 7 April 2020
Do you have an innovative idea to solve a social problem? Are you ambitious, entrepreneurial, and passionate about social change? If yes, then apply now for Social Entrepreneurs Ireland’s The Ideas Academy.
This 4-day programme, over the course of 4 months from June to September, will provide social entrepreneurs with the support and direction you need to help you to kick-start your idea and take the next steps to start tackling the problem.
The Ideas Academy will provide guidance and support to people with ideas to solve societal problems, sparking a new generation of social entrepreneurs. They are seeking to identify individuals with an entrepreneurial drive and aptitude, a passion for social change, a strong understanding of the problem they are addressing, and a great idea to solve it.
Participants on this programme receive training, support, and peer mentorship in key areas of importance to idea-stage social entrepreneurs such as how to develop your idea, pilot it, and set up your project. Taking place over four learning days from June to September 2020, the Ideas Academy will help you to take those first steps to move from idea to action.
Benefits
Together with a small group of fellow innovators, you will receive:
- Training & Support Academy: Participants will receive training and development to help further their thinking and build their capacity as an entrepreneur. Over the course of the Academy, participants will attend four full day workshops. These will support participants to more fully interrogate the social problem, refine the solution and model, and the skills and knowledge needed to pilot and test their idea.
- A Powerful Community: To support you at the early stage of your journey, you will receive peer mentorship and access to networking opportunities. All participants on the programme take part in learning group session with their fellow participants. These sessions are designed for participants to further their thinking and work on tasks set out at the training days. Social Entrepreneurs Ireland consultants will also offer guidance and support to help you move from idea to action.
The Academy is looking for:
- Potential social entrepreneurs: The Ideas Academy is for ambitious, driven individuals, who are interested in tackling a social or environmental problem. They should act in an entrepreneurial manner and be open to learning and developing themselves through The Ideas Academy. They are accepting applications from individuals and two-person partnerships.
- A societal challenge: There are a lot of problems and issues to be addressed in Ireland so they’re looking for people who can clearly demonstrate why the issue they want to address is of particular importance and why they’re passionate about it. The challenge that their project is addressing can be social or environmental.
- An idea: Applicants should have an idea with the potential to solve a social problem. As social entrepreneurs don’t replicate what is already being provided, but instead seek to approach issues from a different angle, the idea should be new or better than what is already done to solve this problem in Ireland. While their Awards Programme works with social entrepreneurs whose projects are already up and running, The Ideas Academy caters for those who are in the idea or conceptual stages of creating a solution.
What Academy expects from Participants
Social Entrepreneurs Ireland invests significant time and resource to provide a range of opportunities to participants of The Ideas Academy. In return they expect:
- Full participation and attendance on core programme support elements, outlined above, in order to successfully complete the programme and join the SEI Alumni Network and avail of other opportunities;
- Open-minded, professional, and collegial engagement;
- Willingness to participate in group events and share knowledge;
- Active involvement with the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Academy Alumni Network.
Eligibility Criteria
- You are aged 18 years or over at the time of applying for the programme.
- You are the person leading on this idea – the main driver and decision maker.
- The primary focus of your idea is on benefiting Irish society.
- You have identified a social or environmental issue and have a new or better idea to solve it.
- You are available to commit to full attendance for all Academy events.
- If your project activities only take place outside Ireland and the communities benefiting from your activities are outside Ireland then you are not eligible to apply.
- They support programmes are only open to social entrepreneurs living in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Note: Social Entrepreneurs Ireland is not in a position to support research projects, party political projects, or projects with an explicit religious or faith-based agenda – as opposed to projects that are driven by a personal belief system but are open to all the community.
All participants will be informed as to whether they have been selected by the 12th June.
For more information, visit https://socialentrepreneurs.ie/