Project description
Testing a new social innovation action manual
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, there is a lack of finance, scaling models and qualified personnel; 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 EU-funded CHESS project will design, implement and test a “Social Innovation Action manual” in four carefully selected societal challenges, each systemic in nature, in four countries. Through three cycles of testing, iterating and improving, the project will produce a final sharable Social Innovation in Action manual.
Objective
It is now widely accepted in Europe that we need new approaches if we are to tackle the systemic and urgent societal challenges we face - traditional technological or business innovation alone is not sufficient. ‘Social’ must be part of the bigger innovation picture.
With significant support from the European Commission, social innovation is currently well embedded in several policy agendas and funding streams. There are hundreds of social innovation centres, university research teams, accelerators and educational courses, labs, accelerators and incubators of all kinds, as well as a great number of toolkits presenting the various innovative approaches and methodologies that can be applied by students and established practitioners alike.
Despite this success, the full potential of social innovation remains untapped. Different project reports and academic papers published in the past five years have pointed to several interconnected barriers hindering social innovation initiatives. Drawing specif
Despite this success, the full potential of social innovation remains untapped. Different project reports and academic papers published in the past five years have pointed to several interconnected barriers hindering social innovation initiatives. Drawing specifically on the outcomes of three projects that members of this consortium have participated in – SI-DRIVE, SIC, and Labs for Social Innovation – we highlight the following challenges that merit critical attention:
1. Social innovation lacks access to finance, scaling models, and qualified personnel and is not applied enough.
2. Social innovators act in silos and are not integrated into the wider innovation ecosystems.
3. Social innovation toolkits are plentiful, but there is a lack of records about the tools’ effectiveness and pertinence.
The CHESS project tackles the above challenges head-on by designing, implementing and testing a “Social Innovation Action manual” in four locally specific contexts.
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HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support ActionsCoordinator
6330 Piran
Slovenia