The SozialMarie awards ceremony took place at Casino Zögernitz in Vienna, marking the 22nd edition of the award for social innovation. According to Humana Nova, the honored organization, the ceremony was held on May 11, 2026. The top prize went to the Comprehensive Integration Program EDU-UA from Slovakia, which supports newly arrived children who do not speak the local language and need help in school.
Top Prize for Integration of Ukrainian Children in Schools
EDU-UA evolved from emergency aid into an approach combining psychosocial support, language education, and impulses for school systems, according to the organizers. The organization reported working with children in dissociative states, insufficient language acquisition, and visible grief and fear. Starting in January 2023, the organization implemented proposed interventions directly in schools. Psychosocial support expanded from 10 to 19 schools in Bratislava, while intensive language education began as a pilot in four primary schools. The organization operates two language centers, covers three school years, maintains a twelve-person team, and has served 62 children.
Second and Third Prizes: Recognizing Boundaries, Making Culture Accessible
The second prize went to Modern Self-Defense from Czechia, a program that focuses not on combat sports but on helping participants recognize their personal boundaries early and use their capacity for action. The third prize was awarded to Cinema without Barriers from Slovenia, which provides accessible film screenings for blind and deaf audiences as a standard offering, particularly in smaller towns.
Austrian Winner Also Takes Audience Prize
Austria's representative, the Asylum Lawyers' Network (NWAA), won both a category prize and the audience award. The network combines legal expertise and accompanies selected asylum proceedings through all instances up to European courts, with the goal of contributing to the advancement of human rights standards beyond individual cases. According to local media, the network includes numerous Vienna-based lawyers and aims to guide precedent cases to the European Court of Justice. The network's goal is not only to help in individual cases but to ensure long-term protection of human rights standards within Austrian courts. The fact that the initiative won both the expert prize and the audience award underscores public sensitivity to the issue.
Additional Prizes: Circular Economy, Energy, and Education
Among the Croatian award recipients was Humana Nova itself, whose personnel manager Karolina Kraljic accepted the prize. Fifteen of 360 submitted projects were honored this year, with the three top-ranked projects coming from Slovakia, Czechia, and Slovenia. Humana Nova sells well-preserved clothing from its textile collection in its own secondhand store, cuts unsuitable cotton textiles into cleaning cloths, and recycles remaining unusable textiles into industrial felt. New textile products are made from certified eco-materials. Educational programs and workshops for children, youth, and citizens complete the program.
Comparison: An Earlier SozialMarie Award Ceremony
SozialMarie is described as Europe's first award for social innovation, with the first call for proposals in 2004 and the first awards in 2005. The award is managed by the Unruhe Private Foundation, founded by Wanda Moser-Heindl and Friedrich Moser in 2000. At an earlier ceremony, 15 projects were also honored, with a total sum of 42,000 euros in an event at the ORF RadioKulturhaus in Vienna. The top prizes went to projects from Hungary, Czechia, and Croatia at that ceremony, while this year the top three spots were taken by projects from Slovakia, Czechia, and Slovenia. The remaining twelve prizes went to a mix of Austrian, Hungarian, and Czech projects.
Inklucentrum on EDU-UA's Future
The emergency aid approach is intended to transition into a state-funded model. Legislative changes for school integration of foreign children were adopted on January 1, 2026. Since September 2025, Inklucentrum has been conducting experimental testing of two additional adaptation classes in cooperation with NIVAM and the Katarina Bruderova Elementary School with education ministry approval. With this expansion, the organization now provides professional support to a total of 13 such classes. SozialMarie awards only successfully implemented projects according to its own criteria, with visibility for such solutions and discussion of social innovation as its stated goal.