SAB FOUNDATION SOCIAL INNOVATION AND DISABILITY EMPOWERMENT AWARDS 2024 FOR YOUNG SOUTH AFRICANS.

Applications have been made open for the 2024 SAB Foundation Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards. The awards are available to entrepreneurs who have a creative key that tackles social matters encountered by underserved communities or enhances economic entrance and authorization for individuals with disabilities.

Application Deadline is on the 19th of March, 2024

The program for Social Innovation Awards is aimed at innovators, company owners, organizations, and social enterprises that have early-stage ventures or prototypes that can handle social issues in our nation. These goods, services, company plans, and procedures ought to solve societal issues head-on while also developing a viable business plan.

Eligibility Requirements for SAB FOUNDATION SOCIAL INNOVATION AND DISABILITY EMPOWERMENT AWARDS 2024

• The SAB Foundation Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards are open to any innovation solution that offers a credible opportunity to meet a verifiable social and/ or economic requirement evidenced by the SAB Foundation’s target low-income beneficiary classes (with a special focus on innovation that helps women, youth, people with disabilities and those in rural areas), as well as demonstrating likely as a sustainable business.
• Admissions are accepted from South African people, inventors, entrepreneurs, social corporations, and university departments. Entrants may enter as individuals on their own or as members of a team, in which case one individual team leader shall complete the online application form.
• The innovation submitted must be the original work of the applicant and a true innovation and/or a substantial modification of an existing technology, product, service, and production method or business model.
• Product innovation shrouds innovations in both goods and services, which can be divided into new or improved products.
• Process innovation is the adaption or creation of improved ways to deliver a product or service. It could come from changes in knowledge, perception, and understanding. For poverty reduction, process innovations can increase the level of service delivery to beneficiaries, or enable practitioners to reach previously untouched groups or individuals.
• Applications are open to all South African citizens, 18 years or older. All participants must submit a certified copy of their South African Identity Document with their online applications.
• The innovation/solution must have progressed past the “blue-sky” thinking stage: there must be some evidence of investment by the applicant. This means that applicants must be able to show proof that before applying, they have spent time and/or money developing the innovation: planning, developing and testing prototypes, market and industry research, and developing a business plan.

Prizes

• Prizes range from R300 000 to R1.3 million and are used as an investment in innovation.
• In addition to the prize money, the winners are assessed on a case-by-case basis and placed in a tailored program with a suitable business mentor and coach.

The curriculum is adjustable and custom-made to each winner’s prerequisites, as decided upon in concert with the champion, mentor, and business coach.