Pitch Day 2025–26

A milestone for the Lab

On 16 April 2026, the ERUA Social Entrepreneurship Lab held its Pitch Day — bringing together the work of the Lab's first cohort.

Fifteen international student teams, drawn from across the eight ERUA universities, each delivered a five-minute pitch of a social-business idea to an international, multidisciplinary evaluation panel. More than 79 participants took part.

The pitches were the culmination of months of work: ideas explored through the Lab's course and mentoring, then sharpened across a series of expert-led input sessions held between 2 March and 13 April 2026.

Watch the Pitch Day

16 April 2026 · 12:00–14:00 CET

What the teams worked on

The ideas spanned five of Europe's pressing societal challenges:

Ecological transition
Social inclusion
Migration
Access to culture
Democratic participation

How the pitches were judged

Each pitch was assessed against four criteria:

Innovation & Relevance
Impact Measurement
Feasibility
Sustainability

The evaluation panel

The panel was international and multidisciplinary, combining expertise in innovation, social enterprise, research, entrepreneurship mentoring, tourism, fundraising, and communication — reflecting the cross-sector nature of social entrepreneurship and giving teams feedback from many angles.

Winning teams

Several teams were selected to take their ventures further, continuing their development in Paris.

Winning team profiles and links to their case studies will be added here.

In the meantime, see all fifteen teams that presented — with the Pitch Day programme and session recordings.

“The initiative will continue in future editions, consolidating its role as a key platform for promoting social entrepreneurship within ERUA.”

ERUA — Pitch Day recap, May 2026

Pitch Day at a glance