Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CHESS (Change Hubs for Ecosystemic Social Solutions)
Reporting period: 2024-01-16 to 2025-01-15
With support from the European Commission, social innovation is currently well embedded in policy agendas and funding streams. Yet social innovation’s full potential remains untapped with several interconnected barriers: firstly, the lack of finance, scaling models, and qualified personnel and lack of application; secondly, social innovators act in silos and are not integrated into the wider innovation ecosystem; finally, social innovation toolkits need to be tested and validated in terms of their effectiveness. To tackle these challenges, the overarching aim of the CHESS Project is to design, implement and test a ´Social Innovation (SI) in Action Manual´ in four locally specific contexts, around four distinct use cases which address some of Europe´s most complex and systemic societal challenges. Through three cycles of testing, iterating and improving, the Consortium created a robust, tested SI Manual with rich information on learnings from a local context, while facilitating and enhancing the knowledge transfer and building capacities through workshops and curated ´learning by doing. ´
The specific objectives of CHESS are:
• O1 - Integrate social innovation conceptual and practice models to address concrete and locally palpable societal challenges, mobilising a broad range of partners, means of financing, methodologies and relevant information in ways that learning happens in parallel to action.
• O2 - Ensure the interlinking and connection of SI actors with broader innovation ecosystems at local and European levels. Whilst it is important to spend time with like-minded people when a new field of practice is establishing itself, we now need to do more to make sure social innovation can harness the power of diversity and maximise the value of innovation to all.
• O3 - Test and further develop existing innovation approaches and toolkits, focusing on lessons learned from their applications in tackling societal challenges and achieving financial sustainability. The goal here is to create a practical and easily accessible resource that takes into consideration business aspects while acknowledging the systemic nature of the challenges and the need to use strategic foresight.
The specific objectives of CHESS are:
• O1 - Integrate social innovation conceptual and practice models to address concrete and locally palpable societal challenges, mobilising a broad range of partners, means of financing, methodologies and relevant information in ways that learning happens in parallel to action.
• O2 - Ensure the interlinking and connection of SI actors with broader innovation ecosystems at local and European levels. Whilst it is important to spend time with like-minded people when a new field of practice is establishing itself, we now need to do more to make sure social innovation can harness the power of diversity and maximise the value of innovation to all.
• O3 - Test and further develop existing innovation approaches and toolkits, focusing on lessons learned from their applications in tackling societal challenges and achieving financial sustainability. The goal here is to create a practical and easily accessible resource that takes into consideration business aspects while acknowledging the systemic nature of the challenges and the need to use strategic foresight.
During the Project´s lifetime, a scanning of existing SI toolkits worldwide was undertaken by the Learning Partners (LPs) - more than 200 were identified. From this scan, a longlist of tools was narrowed down to a shortlist to be used by the Action Partners in their country workshops.
Three sets of workshops were carried out in the four local contexts by the four Action Partners (APs), thus providing the basis for analysing and thereby improving the application of SI tools. The Consortium held three transnational learning sessions between the APs and LPs, who receive feedback on SI tools and perform the iteration and improvement of the SI Manual. The four APs each focus on a different societal challenge:
EMUNI (Slovenia) – Sustainable Blue Economy
ESFA (Lithuania) – Refugee Integration
PJA (Italy) – Youth and Female Unemployment
CERTH (Greece) – Climate Change
The thematic range of the societal challenges addressed is broad, but the consistent alternation in the application of each set of SI tools in the respective workshops among the APs ensures potential SI solutions underpins the issues posed and will provide the solid foundation for the SI in Action Manual.
At then end of the project, a final event was held in Lithuania, were the SI in Action Manual was presented by the LPs.
Three sets of workshops were carried out in the four local contexts by the four Action Partners (APs), thus providing the basis for analysing and thereby improving the application of SI tools. The Consortium held three transnational learning sessions between the APs and LPs, who receive feedback on SI tools and perform the iteration and improvement of the SI Manual. The four APs each focus on a different societal challenge:
EMUNI (Slovenia) – Sustainable Blue Economy
ESFA (Lithuania) – Refugee Integration
PJA (Italy) – Youth and Female Unemployment
CERTH (Greece) – Climate Change
The thematic range of the societal challenges addressed is broad, but the consistent alternation in the application of each set of SI tools in the respective workshops among the APs ensures potential SI solutions underpins the issues posed and will provide the solid foundation for the SI in Action Manual.
At then end of the project, a final event was held in Lithuania, were the SI in Action Manual was presented by the LPs.
A final sharable SI in Action Manual was developed. While there are already numerous SI toolkits, less is known about the effectiveness of their practical application. Do they serve the ‘messy realities of the field’ once outside the academic or living lab environment where they were created? The purpose of the resulted SI in Action Manual is to test, iterate and document the application of a selection of SI tools to serve, for ecosystem building purposes, a variety of real-life challenges and organisations across Europe.
The manual and the tools are useful to any organisation who has a role which includes bridge building or making connections across ecosystems. The tools apply to stakeholders from any sector, working on any challenge, in any context. We know it’s not easy to work with people from different sectors who have different experiences, priorities, perceptions, and alternative ways of working. That is why the manual offers concrete examples of how actors from four European contexts have used existing tools to bring together diverse stakeholders, raise awareness, and foster collaboration to address specific societal challenges. This is intended as a practical, accessible resource for anyone trying to navigate and tackle big societal challenges effectively.
The manual and the tools are useful to any organisation who has a role which includes bridge building or making connections across ecosystems. The tools apply to stakeholders from any sector, working on any challenge, in any context. We know it’s not easy to work with people from different sectors who have different experiences, priorities, perceptions, and alternative ways of working. That is why the manual offers concrete examples of how actors from four European contexts have used existing tools to bring together diverse stakeholders, raise awareness, and foster collaboration to address specific societal challenges. This is intended as a practical, accessible resource for anyone trying to navigate and tackle big societal challenges effectively.