Social Innovation Relay

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.

Students like the team from South Africa who won the 2012 global competition with a concept for a solar-powered lamp that provides electricity to the needy, while eliminating the environmental and health damage caused by traditional kerosene lamps.

"We've had so much fun coming up with a business concept that can actually make a positive change in the world. Working with our HP mentor and competing with students around the world has been really cool, and we're really excited to begin working with investors and business leaders to bring our solar-powered lamp to market," said a member of the Emulsified Environmentalists team.

More than 30,000 students in 13 countries have participated in the program, supported by hundreds of HP employees who volunteer as mentors.

Students around the world develop innovative business solutions to solve pressing social problems.

Using the latest in interactive meeting technology and online resources, students work their way through a series of competition stages, learning about social innovation and entrepreneurship and developing solutions to real life challenges, with a focus on education, health, social inclusion, employment, and sustainability.

Student teams refine, explain, and defend their ideas guided by HP employees who act as business advisors, coaching the student team online and face-to-face.

HP mentors advise students on developing innovative concepts that have a positive social impact while also teaching:

What social innovation really means
How information technology can power business success and solutions to social issues
21st century skills like critical thinking, creativity, team-building, and collaboration
Communication, problem-solving, and presentation skills.

Programs in action

2012 Social lnnovation Relay Winner

Emulsified Environmentalists, a team of students from South Africa, won the 2012 Social Innovation Relay, a worldwide competition that encourages young students to develop ideas to help solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

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2011 Social lnnovation Relay Winner

A team of high school students from Nizhnekamsk, Russia, won the first Social Innovation Relay, a global competition where teams of students from 13 participating countries designed projects that could have a significant positive social impact.

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Where in the world?

Our interactive map shows
small samples of our work
around the world.

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