Cohort 3 will start accepting seed funding applications in February 2024. Cohort 4 will be launched in April 2024.

Permanent residents of Hong Kong aged 18 or above are eligible to join the programme.

There is no participation fee, including the training and applications for seed funding.

No, anyone who is keen to develop social innovation projects could apply for the programme. For details, please refer to Eligibility section.

The Elementary Training is designed specifically for potential social innovators. To fully understand social innovation and develop ideas into reality, participants will join the Bootcamp, Maker Skills Workshops, Weekly Tutorial courses and Mentoring session. The Elementary Training aims to equip the participants with an entrepreneurial mindset. It covers a variety of topics, including social innovation, project management, user research, social impact measurement, decision-making and risk management, social return on investment, maker skills for prototyping, branding and marketing, pitching skills, etc.

The Elementary Training lasts eight weeks, and the incubation is six months long.

The programme provides awarded projects with seed capital of up to HK$100,000 to develop their social innovation projects. There are eight open calls during the three-year programme. For details on open calls, please refer to the Open Calls section. For more information about the application process, please refer to the Application Procedure section.

For the Elementary Training, participants can enroll in courses and events individually. For seed funding applications, applicants are required to form a team of one to five members, with the principal applicant serving as the point of contact.

No, the same project will not get funding support from different government funding schemes concurrently in order to avoid duplication of resources. Applicants are required to declare their applications whether the same proposal/ project has applied for or is currently applying for the SIE Fund.

We strongly encourage every potential applicant to join the Elementary Training, which equips participants with skill sets for social innovation and gives them a full picture of the 6-month incubation. Applicants for seed funding who attend at least 70% of the Elementary Training will receive a full score of “Commitment”, which accounts for 15% of the evaluation criteria.

Applicants for seed funding who attend at least 70% of the Elementary Training will receive a full score of “Commitment”, which accounts for 15% of the evaluation criteria.

The attendance rate of the Elementary Training will affect the total score of “Commitment”, which accounts for 15% of the evaluation criteria. If all team members’ attendance rate is at least 70% during the Elementary Training, the team will receive a full score of “Commitment”. If some of your team members attend less than 70% of the Elementary Training, the score of “Commitment” will be calculated based on the ratio of qualified team members: The total score (15%) will be divided by the total number of your team members, and then multiplied by the number of qualified team members. For example, if you have three members in total and two of them have attended at least 70% of the Elementary Training, the team’s score for “Commitment” is 10%.

Applicants for seed funding who attend at least 70% of the Elementary Training can carry over their attendance record to the next cohort. Please note that these applicants must participate in consecutive cohorts, and a record can only be carried over once. Applicants also have the option to rejoin the Elementary Training, but their attendance records for the two cohorts will not be combined. Applicants who are unable to meet the 70% attendance requirement can retake the Elementary Training, and their attendance record will start from zero. The aforementioned method of counting attendance applies only to Cohorts 1-7.

To avoid potential conflicts of interest, immediate family members of programme staff are not allowed to participate in the programme. If you have any concerns about a potential conflict of interest, please contact us.

Yes, you can submit multiple proposals, but each proposal should show its difference and uniqueness in terms of ideas and target groups.

For details, please refer to the Evaluation Criteria.

Applicants are not required to submit a proposal that follows the theme of the cohort. The theme is solely for conducting the courses and activities of the Elementary Training.

Yes, awarded projects can use the seed funding to pay the salaries of their team members.

Yes, awarded projects are required to register their business before the start of the incubation and to open a designated bank account with a licensed bank in Hong Kong to receive the seed funding and manage daily project expenses. The programme reserves  the right to defer or reject the grant once the awarded projects do not register the Business Registration Certificates and company’s bank accounts before the incubation. Also, any application fees of the aforementioned items should be paid by the awarded projects.

No, sole proprietorship, partnership and limited liability company are all eligible.

Yes, awarded projects must open a designated bank account with a licensed bank in Hong Kong. This account can only be used for the project awarded by Impact Innovation Lab, handling income and expenses related to it, such as receiving the seed funding and managing daily project expenses.

In addition to financial support, awarded projects will receive networking opportunities, where they can meet veterans and experts across various sectors and seek their expert insights. Awarded projects can also use a makerspace and a co-working space.

The seed funding will be disbursed to the awarded projects in three installments during the 6-month incubation period, with a ratio of 50:40:10. The grant disbursement is an advance payment, and the awarded projects are required to return any unspent balance from their completed projects to the programme.

Please contact us at [email protected] or +852 4638 0364. 

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