Social Innovation Mission Facility – A SI Advisory and Investor’s Network

EU - Horizon Europe

The overall objective of the project is to unlock the untapped potentials of social innovations (SIs) to boost the EU Missions by promoting, activating, scaling and mainstreaming SIs and by engaging a variety of actors at European, national and local level through a series of interconnected measures. To attain this objective, the project will address four key actions:

1. Identify an evidence base of successful and - regarding the EU Missions - auspicious SIs and co-create suitable impact pathways and anchor points for the integration of SIs in future calls and topics of the EU Missions.
2. Provide training and advice through our Training and Scaling Lab about the opportunities provided by the EU Missions, by upgrading the skills of social innovators and support organisations for successful scaling and participation in calls of the EU and of private and public funders dealing with mission related themes.
3. Create a SI Funding and Investors’ Network to advise and engage private and public funding authorities in supporting, financing and scaling powerful SIs for the EU Missions’ purposes and by expanding the range of financial instruments with the help of a SI Investment Lab.
4. Establish a Community of Practice (CoP) to implement regular exchange and learning between EU Missions, the SI Funders and Investors’ Network and social innovators to meet demand and supply and to co-create a Research Agenda to make the best use of SI for the EU Missions.

The tasks of the social research center include:

• Conceptualising social innovation against the background of the EU-Missions
• Identification of successful social innovations
• Co-development of impact pathways of social innovations for EU-Missions
• Set up of a cross-sectoral Community of Practice
• Summary of key findings and next steps in a Framework for a Future Research Agenda

• ZSI – Centre for Social Innovation
• DRIFT – Dutch Research Institute for Transitions
• Impact Hub Global GmbH
• Impact Hub Ljubljana
• Impact Hub Stockholm
• Impact Hub Labs (Impact Hub Athens)
• Impact Hubs SRL (Impact Hub Turin)
• Ropot Boutique SRL (Impact Hub Bucharest)
• SIX – Social Innovation Exchange
• Portugal Social Innovation

The scientific activities of the social research center in the project serve to identify –in regard to the EU Missions - successful social innovations. To this end, a comprehensive literature review will be conducted providing the theoretical and conceptual basis for the identification of successful social innovations. Based on these findings, we will conduct a database analysis to identify specific social innovations that contribute to strengthening one or more EU Missions. Based on this catalogue and qualitative interviews with policy-makers, the project team will outline impact pathways that describe how social innovations can contribute to EU Missions and what types of scaling and mainstreaming activities are needed to unlock their full potential. In real-world laboratories (“Training and Scaling Lab”) affiliated with five local impact hubs, crucial skills of social innovators are enhanced through workshops and consultations. The individuals and organizations to be involved in building an investors network and the community of practice are identified through stakeholder mapping and engaged with in a target group-oriented manner. The future research agenda is developed under the lead of the social research center through using various co-creative and participatory approaches.

The Key Exploitable Results (KERs) of the project are:

• Compilation of a Catalogue of SI impact pathways 
• Set up of a Operational Training and Scaling Lab
• Design of 30 credible scaling plans
• Establishment of a committed funding network to support EU Missions established
• Preparation of one financial Framework Partnership Agreement for a networked catalytic fund
• Publication and wide endorsement of a co-designed research agenda
• Engagement of >200 organisations in exchange and dialogue