  We theoretically explore the possibility of realizing the symmetry-protected
topological Haldane phase of spin-1 chains in a tunable hybrid platform of
superconducting islands (SIs) and quantum dots (QDs). Inspired by recent
findings suggesting that an appropriately tuned QD-SI-QD block may behave as a
robust spin-1 unit, we study the behavior of many such units tunnel-coupled
into linear chains. Our efficient and fully microscopic modeling of long chains
with several tens of units is enabled by the use of the surrogate model solver
[Phys. Rev. B 108, L220506 (2023); arXiv:2402.18357]. Our numerical findings
indicate that the QD-SI-QD chains exhibit emblematic features of the Haldane
phase, such as fractional spin-1/2 edge states and non-vanishing string order
parameters, and that these persist over a sizeable region of parameter space.
