After having prepared the basic principles for a social innovation national competence center (SINCC) during a 2021-2023 project, based on the call in 2020, the partners INSISST formed a new consortium for the open Call “National Competence Centres for Social Innovation: Building-up and Consolidating the Capacity entitled ‘ESF+ Network of Competence Centres for Social Innovation (ENCCSI)’” The partners joined forces for the professionalization and further development of SINCCs in their member states.

Partners

Objectives 

We are convinced that social innovation has a crucial role to play for building just and fair societies that respect the environment, given all the challenges we face today and tomorrow. All partners have worked on a strategy for the SINCCs, we are ready to take action, and to analyse and filter out the models that best suit the support of SI in their region. Our emphasis will be on sustaining and future-proofing these models for supporting SI in each region so that by 2027 we are collectively well-positioned to scale further and broaden the impact of our work both nationally and at a European level. 

The overall objectives of the consortium: 

• decent and efficient project management, in order to make the necessary progress and to be accountable  

• strengthen the ecosystem and environment for social innovation by strengthening opportunities for networking and collaboration between public authorities, academia, private and third sector organisations around identified and priority societal challenges. 

• peer-to-peer learning and capacity building for challenges defined in a “dynamic learning agenda”, and involving external expertise where needed. Also learning from other consortia will be covered. 

• monitoring and reflexive evaluation on the development process and the impact of the SINCCs 

• internal and external communication and dissemination, so that other stakeholders interested in our work can learn from our endeavor, its successes and (possible) fails. 

Plans for Social Innovation National Competence Centers per partner 

Social Innovation Factory (B) 

• We will further build the ecosystem so that a better dynamic can emerge between different players in the system: such as the local experimentation places for social innovation, impact funders, different authorities, academia, civil society organisations, social profit, governments… i.e. our associated partners. 

• We are working on a more elaborate support network of local experimentation places where social innovation can be addressed and grow. We connect the different local experimentation places, engage with them to learn together and thus together ensure even more punishing and scalable or scaled-up social innovations.  

• Working towards a favourable ecosystem by engaging in funding mechanisms that are more responsive to the nature and needs of social innovation developments. 

• Expanding the market for social innovation by focusing on corporate and government procurement policies on the one hand but also improving the marketing skills of social innovation providers on the other. 

• We want to make knowledge about social innovation(s) or providers of social innovative solutions conveniently available through digital tools. We also want to sharpen digital skills. 

• the Social Innovation Factory will continue to put social innovation in the spotlights and promote its potential to accelerate promising social innovations. 

• Last but not least, we want to scale up impact. Because beautiful social innovations are flourishing and growing that we want to give even more fertile ground and oxygen in Belgium and Europe with this competence center.  

Rethink Ireland (IRL)  & Genio (IRL) 

Under the INSSISST Project, Rethink Ireland and Genio intend to build upon the outcomes achieved during the previous EU Call, the FUSE project, to further support the development of the social innovation sector both at a national and transnational European level. Under the FUSE project, Ireland’s main activities included the mapping of Ireland’s social innovation ecosystem support structures, capacity-building of key social innovation players, and the development of a Blueprint for a Strategy and Action Plan for Social Innovation in Ireland. The proposed activities under this call have been directly informed by those proposed within the Blueprint. These activities will simultaneously build capacity, strengthen cross-sectoral national networks, develop capacity for scaling, explore the development of a National Competence Centre for Social Innovation in Ireland, as well as new tailor-made funding mechanisms and a national methodological framework for social impact assessment. 

We are aiming to implement this project with an ecosystem approach that is inclusive and participatory, evidence-based, bottom-up, multistakeholder and iterative in nature. 

1. We will recommend a model for the establishment of a resource centre and hub to catalyse and drive the development of the social innovation sector nationally, 

1. We will develop a national methodological framework for social impact assessment. 

1. We will develop a capacity building program to support social innovation at different stages of their development cycles 

1. We will facilitate the creation of a new financial instrument or funding scheme with a blended-approach bringing public and private funding with the aim of supporting social innovation to scale and maximise impact 

1. We will raise awareness to different audiences 

Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (FI) 

• The Finnish competence center will bring together the key stakeholders of social innovations and jointly develops a national strategy and action plan with them, which emphasize the importance and effectiveness of social innovations. 

• The Competence Center aims to have a clear five-year strategy, an action plan and a management model, through which various actors have committed themselves to the competence center’s operations and prepared the national strategy for social innovations in cooperation with partners.  

• The Competence Center supports and increases the innovation ability of operators by offering various methods and training to support development. The Competence Center supports the evaluation of innovations by providing a validation tool for this. 

• Together with different administrative branches and financiers, the Competence Center develops methods of operation in which the solutions, resources and needs of social innovations could be better met. 

• The Competence Center offers information on various funding opportunities, support for applying for funding, and promotes the use of less utilized funding sources for the development of social innovations. 

• The Competence Center organizes national events to highlight social innovation practices and to bring different actors together. 

• An English-language version of the online service (www.innokyla.fi) will be made, which will support the development and sharing of various social innovations also internationally. 

The Social Innovation Unit, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (CZ) 

Public services 21st century ready 

Innovative public administration is not an obstacle to social innovation 

• Focus on public officials so that more of them understand and use added value of experimentations, client’s perspective, including modern forms of collaboration and other innovative methods 

• Sharing of good practice among public officials 

Capacity building of relevant actors in social innovation 

• Focus on social innovations in regions 

• Building innovation competencies and finding out ways how to do it in more for less for more format (for more people with less resources and time deliver more value) 

Focus on system change and foresight 

• How to enable system change in more efficient ways 

• Search for solutions to wicked problems and foresight threats 

Deeper networking/collaboration 

• Among those supporting SI (foundations, donors, innovation centers) 

• Focus on strong partners with experiences in different fields and an extensive network of collaborators 

Promote social innovation  

• Organize Social Innovation Forum focuses on new trends and good practice 

• Release podcast and blog 

Scale-up projects from abroad  

• Continue to support project Papillon and increase its impact 

• Identify new projects with potential for scaling 

Create sustainable model of national Competence Centre 

Shipyard Foundation (PL) 

Shipyard Foundation (established in 2009) – designs and implements its own social innovations, i.e., www.naprawmyto.pl, www.silowniapamieci.pl, – supports social innovators and the development of their innovations, i.e., since 2016 Shipyard runs one of the social innovation incubators in Poland on social inclusion (funded by ESF), since 2022 the Business Unusual programme aimed at social enterprises run by people with migrant or refugee experience (supported by Google.org) – supports the development of the social innovation ecosystem in Poland (i.e., organises networking events, trainings, seminars, runs a portal and social innovation database www.innowacjespoleczne.pl).

Social Innovation Academy (DK) 

 The objectives in this NCC phase are: 

1) Ecosystem building – we will continue to connect and develop the SI ecosystem and making connections between actors 

2) Building the capacity and sustainability of the NCC 

3) Further develop the online and physical presence of the DK NCC and making resources available to the ecosystem 

4) Move social innovation into public policy and lay the foundation for a national strategy by mobilizing the key stakeholders and decision-makers 

5) Work to promote new value concepts and innovative financing models to support social innovation 

6) Building relationships and demand for SI competence/capacity in central authorities – especially within the NMA 

Summary: SIA will consolidate the competence center and further develop this position, strengthen capacity building work (especially with the NMA) and push for more political prioritization of social innovation. 

Contact

Tomas De Groote (Social Innovation Factory): tomas@socialeinnovatiefabriek.be  

Mario Vottero (Rethink Ireland) mario@rethinkireland.ie  

Triona O’Connor (Genio): triona.oconnor@genio.ie  

Sari Eskelinen (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare): sari.eskelinen@thl.fi   

Petr Havlíček (Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs): petr.havlicek@mpsv.cz 

Zofia Komorowska (Shipyard Foundation): zkomorowska@stocznia.org.pl  

Anders Folmer Buhelt (Social Innovation Academy): anders@akademietforsocialinnovation.dk