SozialMarie

We a re looking for tried and tested, implemented, effective social innovations in all sectors in Central and Eastern Europe.

News

07/07/2025

Backstage at SozialMarie 2025! Episode 12 is out, Tune in now!

Sparkle, goosebumps and social change – that’s how we’d describe our 2025 award ceremony. But what really happens behind the scenes? What thoughts guide our jury as they navigate over 400 submissions? And what does social innovation mean today? Listen to the podcast here.

07/05/2025

(Re)Building Democracy 2025 - Pecs

Summary of Key Insights from (Re)Building Democracy 2025 Pécs, Hungary | June 18–19, 2025 Our coordinator of Czech Republic, Lenka Safrankova joined this years Conference in Pecs. Here you can find her summary of the dicussions. Status of democracy and civil society in the CEE region Michal Vašečka (SK) “We are living through the biggest paradigmatic shift of our lifetimes — akin to the agricultural or industrial revolution, but much faster.” He refered to the classical three-sector model of society (state (public sector), the market (private sector), and civil society (nonprofit and voluntary sector)). He described Central and Eastern Europe as “a ship stuck on a sandbank,” paralyzed and fatigued by change: “We are a region like a ship stranded on a sandbank. We are unable to navigate the change — we are fatigued.” “People believe democracy no longer delivers what they want. They've given up.” Half of Slovaks do not participate in civic life; the other half is drawn to conspiracies.

06/01/2025

Videos of SozialMarie Winners 2025

Learn more about the SozialMarie 2024 winners in 1-minute videos for each project.

05/02/2025

Our SozialMarie 2025 winners and the Event highlights in pictures!

Just announced and already shining – here’s the very first winners' photo! On May 1st, 2025, the 21st SozialMarie Award Ceremony took place at the beautiful MuTh Vienna. Our 2025 laureates bring fresh energy and powerful ideas for social innovation across Europe.

Price

SozialMarie is a prize for social innovation that is awarded every year to outstanding projects. It honours initiatives that offer novel, sustainable and exemplary solutions to current social challenges. You can find out more about what we mean by social innovation and how the prize is awarded here.

Projects

Every year since 2005, socially innovative projects from various sectors have been honoured with the SozialMarie. Would you like to find out more about the projects, see who has been nominated and who is one of the lucky winners? Click here for the projects.

Insights

Did you know that we have a podcast? Would you like to click through pictures from past events or find out what else we do apart from the SozialMarie application and award ceremony? Take a look at our Insights.

Patrons

What do a workshop, a social media post, bread dough and a charity event have in common? The patron of honour for a nominated project. You can find more information about our inspiring patrons here.