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CHEST will invest 2.5 Million Euro via three open funding rounds in seed finance for highly innovative digital based technologies, concepts and systems that address a specific societal challenge. CHEST also supports social entrepreneurs and innovators in sharing and exchanging ideas by creating an online forum where anyone (social entrepreneurs, innovators, citizens, interest groups) can propose an IT-based idea for solving societal challenges and discuss it with others.
Why is our project important?
With a budget of 2.5 Million, CHEST provides the opportunity for innovative social innovation ideas to be funded and to be realised. The applicants will only be selected by CHEST after an evaluation by the crowd, as well as by independent experts. The project has already funded 35project ideas at Call 1, each receiving up to €6K in seed finance. Furthermore, 5 projects have been selected for support under Call 2and will now join the CHEST project as Consortium partners.
By adapting new Internet instruments and social media, the CHEST project combines these two by creating an online environment, i.e. the platform where every one of these actors and current initiatives can be involved in order to debate social innovation, generate and exchange new initiatives, develop good practices and encourage collaboration among different actors and current initiatives. The CHEST platform will thus increase the likehood that ideas will grow into viable added value social initiatives. The CHEST platform will also be a solution that is not restricted to one domain, but will be usable in other innovative area’s where a need is felt to work collaboratively accross different actors by sharing ideas, experiences and potentials. f you are a social entrepreneurs, an innovator or a citizen and you have a specific idea addressing a specific social challenge or you want to contribute to idea-generation with other social innovators, then visit the chest website and see how to apply or how to contribute to the ongoing discussion about the proposed ideas.
What are our goals?
- To facilitate the generation of community derived ideas that address societal challenges, supporting knowledge exchange, the development of best practice, discussion and collaborative activity.
- To invite social entrepreneurs from across Europe to submit their ideas through three open funding calls for proposals, which will then be evaluated by both the crowd community and external independent evaluators, with the highest rated proposals each receiving support for continued development and realisation.
- To transform the selected ideas into viable added value social initiatives.
- communicate the results of the project across the EU and to engage with key communities, investors and incubators active with an interest in digital social innovation to ensure the sustainability of the programme with the potential to facilitate crowd funding to finance future projects and ideas
Initiatives, tools and services we have already launched
Initiatives, tools and services we are still working on
The CHEST Partners are pleased to announce that five projects have been selected under Call 2. Each winning applicant will now join the CHEST consortium as a partner. The winning projects are as follows:



Who will benefit from our project?
- Higher education institutions,foundations, SMEs, NGOs and individuals that have an innovative digital based idea and are willing to receive financial support to realize it.
- Venture capital firms, business incubations, creativity networks, idea management companies and crowdsourcing software providers that would like to propose their ideas, get financial support, assess and discuss the ideas selected for funding.
- Other organizations with an interest in addressing societal challenges, which would like to develop their innovative ideas and be evaluated by the community, i.a. the social entrepreneurs.