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Content archived on 2024-06-18

Social Innovation and Civic Engagement

Objective

Research has made seminal contributions to describing the size and scope of the Third Sector, including volunteering as an essential component. However, most of the research has focused on economic benefits (revenues, employment etc.). We highly value these efforts, but posit that the core contribution and main impact of the sector on socio-economic development lies in the creation of social innovation.

Our claim is that the Third Sector is better equipped to foster social innovation than the market or the public sector. We will build a set of testable hypotheses that relate to its key characteristics, e.g.: (1) strong value sets; (2) persistent multi-stakeholder constellations; (3) the mobilisation of multiple resources.

Against the update of structural data, we aim at testing these hypotheses on the qualitative impacts of the Third Sector in terms of capital building (e. g., social networks, cultural values or political participation) and their direct link to social innovation. We set out to investigate organizations with a special emphasis on volunteering at the micro level, which serves as a bond from and into society. The analysis will include a screening of framework policy conditions and discourses (citizens/media) on the roles and functions of the sector. This strategy will be executed in case studies against major social innovation trends of the last years.

The fields we aim to study across 9 countries are: (1) arts & culture; (2) social services & health; (3) environmental sustainability & consumer protection in finance; (4) work integration & community development; all of which are of vital importance face to current societal challenges.

By doing so we will not only redefine perspectives on the sector to stress its main impact as driver of social innovation, but also relate to recent EU research (SELUSI, TEPSIE, INNOSERV, WILCO or CINEFOGO) to lift the investigation of social innovation to systemic level highlighting comprehensive innovation ecosystems.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-SSH-2013-2
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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CP-FP - Small or medium-scale focused research project

Coordinator

RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG
EU contribution
€ 515 456,00
Address
SEMINARSTRASSE 2
69117 Heidelberg
Germany

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Region
Baden-Württemberg Karlsruhe Heidelberg, Stadtkreis
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Participants (10)

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