Social Innovation Community (SIC)

European Commission

Developing an enabling environment for social innovation that links actions across the field and supports the full realization of its potential is critical to addressing societal challenges both in Europe and globally. While there is growing interest in social innovation as a means to address societal challenges, there is also considerable variation in the extent to which different countries and regions have adopted social innovation. There are many research and policy projects as well as incubation and acceleration programs with valuable outcomes, but they remain largely disconnected. The overarching goal of this project is therefore to create a "network of networks" of social innovation stakeholders. This Social Innovation Community (SIC) will identify, engage, and connect actors such as researchers, social innovators, citizens, policy makers, as well as intermediaries, businesses, civil society organizations, and public sector staff.

As part of our cross-cutting work packages, we will implement engagement, research, experimentation, learning, and policy activities that engage and support each network. We will ensure that our cross-cutting activities are complementary and build on each other's work rather than working in silos. This SIC aims to deepen and strengthen existing networks, create new connections between networks, and create new connections with actors and networks that have not previously been involved in the social innovation field. The goals of such a community are to generate new social innovations, develop and disseminate successful ideas, share and disseminate knowledge more effectively to improve research, practice, and policy making. By creating an enabling environment for social innovation, the project will improve the overall framework for social innovation in Europe. This in turn will support the creation of growth opportunities and the overcoming of the current social and economic crisis affecting large parts of Europe.

• AEIDL (Project Coordinator)
• UNIBO (University of Bologna)
• YF (The Young Foundation)
• Nesta
• SIL (Social Innovation Lab)
• DRIFT (The Dutch Research Institute for Transitions)
• Sinnergiak UPV/EHU
• ZSI (Center for Social Innovation)
• DTI (The Danish Technological Institute)
• REVES
• SIX (Social Innovation Exchange)

1. Reach out to a variety of social innovation actors and networks to create a truly inclusive social innovation community. This community will include not only the usual players, but also networks and stakeholders who are active in the field of social innovation but do not necessarily identify with this multi-faceted and rapidly evolving concept.
2. Establish a framework for a shared understanding of social innovation, including past trends, recent findings, and new methodologies to identify future areas of focus.
3. Test new approaches to social innovation by supporting and encouraging grassroots and institutional experimentation, particularly cross-sector and cross-national collaborations in locally defined priority areas.
4. Promote social innovation learning among practitioners, policymakers, and researchers through participatory learning processes, enabling reflection on practice, and developing and sharing models, tools, and other resources for best practices.
5. Supporting policy makers at European and other levels in shaping policies and other actions to promote social innovation through evidence-based recommendations and linking policy makers with practitioners, citizens, and the latest research.
6. Co-shaping a vision and strategy for the social innovation community that takes into account short-, medium-, and long-term goals, and assessing its impact to ensure that its benefits are sustained over the longer term.
7. Disseminating a new SI innovation culture that combines open and participatory learning with social problem solving.

SIC consists of seven different work packages:

WP1 Engagement and Dissemination: hosting the network facilitators and carrying out cross-cutting activities to support the development of the social innovation community, such as managing the digital platform, organizing community-wide events and monitoring coordination.

WP2 Research: inventory and link ongoing research activities on social innovation in Europe and beyond, facilitate research discussions in / with SI networks to increase the impact of research results, identify, highlight and promote discussions on the most relevant topics, better understand and improve the role of SI research in SI practice.

WP3 Experimentation: Translate research into practice by establishing a program of practical experiments, working directly with a range of sectors/regions to define problems and help social innovators develop and scale up solutions.

WP4 Learning: develop a framework for learning from practice to enable social innovation actors from SIC networks to improve and strengthen their interventions.

WP5 Policy: use insights and experiences from the working groups and networks and work with policy makers to demonstrate how social innovation can support their goals and how they can promote SI.

WP6 Strategy development and impact measurement: monitor the impact of the SIC and develop a strategy to sustain the benefits and activities of the SIC beyond the project lifetime.

WP7 Project management: ensure sound project management and governance, and on-time, on-budget and high-quality delivery of the project.

https://www.siceurope.eu/