"The Social Innovation Challenge: Enable and Engage" was launched on 20 April at Middlesea House in Floriana, as part of The World Creativity and Innovation Week 2016, with the participation of the Parliamentary Secretary for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing Justyne Caruana.

The 'Social Innovation Challenge is a new competition aimed at individuals or teams who would like to make a contribution in the field of active ageing and disability.  Launching the competition, Dr Margaret Mangion, a lecturer The Edward de Bono Institute for the Design and the Development of Thinking, explained that participants are required to identify a problem that affects ageing individuals or individuals with disabilities. The participants then have to come up with an innovative solution to this problem and carry out a feasibility study for this solution. "People might have the idea but not the resources to implement it - this initiative may allow those ideas to develop fully," Dr Mangion said.

Also addressing the launch was President and CEO of MAPFRE Middlesea, Felipe Navarro. "It is imperative for us to keep being innovative, given we are operating in an environment that is changing rapidly. Focus on Innovation is in fact one of the key strategies of the MAPFRE Group for the upcoming years," he said.

Parliamentary Secretary Justyne Caruana said that the initiative is in line with the national strategies for active ageing and persons with disabilities and the Secretariat always welcomes new ideas that are intended to enhance the quality of life of people within the community.

The event was organized by The Edward de Bono Institute for the Design and the Development of Thinking in collaboration with the Parliamentary Secretariat for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing, with the support of MAPFRE Middlesea and MSV Life.

Those interested should visit the Facebook Page: The Social Innovation Challenge: Engage and Enable. For queries kindly send an email to [email protected]