The 2013 Social Innovation Relay winners have been announced!

Congratulations to the winners of the 2013 Social Innovation Relay and to the finalists of all participating countries!

Student teams from 19 countries around the world have engaged for several months in developing innovative business concepts that address social needs. The finalists from all participating countries came together in Brussels yesterday to present their work and compete for the title of the “Best Social Innovator 2013”.

And the winners are:

Youth Innovators from India
Under the guidance and support of an HP e-mentor from Singapore, the team developed a revolutionary building material, made out of rice husk boards. The team will buy rice husk from farmers and create a building material, which they called “Green Wood”.

The runners-up in the competition are Cyan from Malaysia, who proposed a solution to battle mosquito-based diseases and Hospitaleiros from Brazil, who developed a concept for an application for information on medical services in Brazil .

Congratulations!!

More than 40,000 students supported by over 500 HP employees participated in this year’s competition that resulted in amazing social innovations that can be found on the SIR Facebook page.

Getting young people excited about entrepreneurship is an investment in future job creation. Entrepreneurship can also be the path to addressing global social issues – generating not just profits but lasting social value. Recognizing this, HP created the Social Innovation Relay in partnership with Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Europe (JA-YE).
This worldwide competition challenges students 15 through 18 to create innovative business concepts to help solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Learn more on www.hp.com/social-innovation.