This document provides information about "This is European Social Innovation", a project that selected 10 promising social innovation projects from over 100 submissions across 23 European countries. It introduces the jury members - Alain Coheur, the Director of Social Economy Europe, and Diogo Vasconcelos, Chair of SIX - who selected the 10 projects. The selected projects highlight some of the most promising social innovations currently happening in different fields and countries across Europe.
This document provides guidance on planning and managing successful events. It covers all aspects of event management from setting the agenda and choosing a venue to promoting the event, managing speakers and delegates, and following up after the event. The guidance is intended to help event managers of various experience levels plan effective dissemination events for Leonardo-funded projects.
The European e-Skills Week campaign seeks to raise interest in ICT careers among young people. The initiative involves over 300,000 participants in more than 100 activities across 20 countries. Educational resources, programs, and competitions are provided to promote ICT skills development. The campaign aims to address digital literacy, skills shortages, and other issues to support the future ICT workforce in Europe.
This document is the introduction to a report published by the Centre for European Reform on innovation in Europe. It provides background on the Centre for European Reform and lists the contributors to the report. The report contains several chapters that examine different aspects of innovation such as what innovation is, the role of research and development, productivity, skills and education, financing innovation, and promoting innovation in an age of austerity. The introduction aims to explore why innovation matters for economic growth and competitiveness.
The document discusses how life expectancies are increasing by five hours per day and how this fundamental change challenges common assumptions about ageing and what it means to be "old." It argues that a new approach is needed to innovate and adapt our social institutions and create ways for people to help one another as populations age. Specifically, it calls for rebuilding social institutions to account for longer lifespans, harnessing opportunities of an aging society, and enabling people to age better through community support and social connections.
This document discusses nation branding and transformation narratives. It argues that positive transformation narratives that combine local culture, values and historical facts in a non-objective way help territories and communities build resilient identities. Territories that have developed positive narratives of transformation facing challenges are more socially sustainable and competitive. The Basque Country is used as an example of a place that transformed its narrative from one associated with violence and conflict in the 1970s to one now associated with modernity, balanced development and innovation through collective action and emphasis on its culture, language and values.
This summary analyzes health and social care usage patterns for over 73,000 people in their last year of life across seven local authorities in England. It finds that while most people (89.6%) used hospital care, social care was also significant, with 27.8% receiving local authority-funded social care. Social care needs were apparent well before the end of life. The study aims to better understand the contributions of health and social care at the end of life through analyzing linked administrative data.
The document introduces the Social Innovation Park (SI Park) in Bilbao, Spain, which will be the first social innovation business park in Europe. SI Park will host social enterprises and emerging innovation projects. It will provide resources like the Social Innovation Laboratory (G-Lab), Social Innovation Academy, Social Enterprise Generator, and Social Angels Club. The G-Lab will identify social trends and test new ideas. The Academy will provide training. The Generator will incubate new social enterprises identified by the G-Lab. SI Park is located in Bilbao due to the region's strong social traditions and history of socio-economic regeneration.
This document provides guidance on planning and managing successful events. It covers all aspects of event management from setting the agenda and choosing a venue to promoting the event, managing speakers and delegates, and following up after the event. The guidance is intended to help event managers of various experience levels plan effective dissemination events for Leonardo-funded projects.
The European e-Skills Week campaign seeks to raise interest in ICT careers among young people. The initiative involves over 300,000 participants in more than 100 activities across 20 countries. Educational resources, programs, and competitions are provided to promote ICT skills development. The campaign aims to address digital literacy, skills shortages, and other issues to support the future ICT workforce in Europe.
This document is the introduction to a report published by the Centre for European Reform on innovation in Europe. It provides background on the Centre for European Reform and lists the contributors to the report. The report contains several chapters that examine different aspects of innovation such as what innovation is, the role of research and development, productivity, skills and education, financing innovation, and promoting innovation in an age of austerity. The introduction aims to explore why innovation matters for economic growth and competitiveness.
The document discusses how life expectancies are increasing by five hours per day and how this fundamental change challenges common assumptions about ageing and what it means to be "old." It argues that a new approach is needed to innovate and adapt our social institutions and create ways for people to help one another as populations age. Specifically, it calls for rebuilding social institutions to account for longer lifespans, harnessing opportunities of an aging society, and enabling people to age better through community support and social connections.
This document discusses nation branding and transformation narratives. It argues that positive transformation narratives that combine local culture, values and historical facts in a non-objective way help territories and communities build resilient identities. Territories that have developed positive narratives of transformation facing challenges are more socially sustainable and competitive. The Basque Country is used as an example of a place that transformed its narrative from one associated with violence and conflict in the 1970s to one now associated with modernity, balanced development and innovation through collective action and emphasis on its culture, language and values.
This summary analyzes health and social care usage patterns for over 73,000 people in their last year of life across seven local authorities in England. It finds that while most people (89.6%) used hospital care, social care was also significant, with 27.8% receiving local authority-funded social care. Social care needs were apparent well before the end of life. The study aims to better understand the contributions of health and social care at the end of life through analyzing linked administrative data.
The document introduces the Social Innovation Park (SI Park) in Bilbao, Spain, which will be the first social innovation business park in Europe. SI Park will host social enterprises and emerging innovation projects. It will provide resources like the Social Innovation Laboratory (G-Lab), Social Innovation Academy, Social Enterprise Generator, and Social Angels Club. The G-Lab will identify social trends and test new ideas. The Academy will provide training. The Generator will incubate new social enterprises identified by the G-Lab. SI Park is located in Bilbao due to the region's strong social traditions and history of socio-economic regeneration.
- The conference brought together over 1000 participants from 56 countries to discuss enabling the data revolution through open data and coordinate action.
- Participants highlighted growing political commitment to open data and its role in sustainable development. The availability of open data is fueling innovation around the world in sectors like health, education, and transportation.
- Discussions focused on building on the impacts of open data, understanding how to harness its potential through common principles and infrastructure, and ensuring its benefits are available to all.
Here is the resume of the contribution by Dr Igor Calzada, MBA to the 2016 Strategic Innovation Summit on Smart Cities that took place in Dublin, held by Harvard University and Dublin City Council on 13th October 2016.
To cite the publication:
Calzada, I. (2016), (Un)Plugging Smart Cities Transformations and Strategies in Europe, Harvard University Whitepaper contribution given on 13th October at 2016 Strategic Innovation Summit: Smart Cities Europe held by the Dublin City Council and the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard University in Dublin, Maynooth University. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.34524.80000.
This document is a report from the Expert Group on Science Education to the European Commission that provides recommendations for improving science education in Europe. The report identifies key challenges in science education and proposes a framework with six objectives to address them: 1) making science education a continuum from pre-school through active citizenship, 2) focusing on competencies and linking science to other disciplines, 3) enhancing teaching quality, 4) increasing collaboration between educational and societal actors, 5) promoting responsible research and innovation, and 6) connecting innovation and science education strategies across levels. The report recommends the European Commission initiate an EU-wide response including consultation and dissemination to implement the proposed actions.
FINAL ALL ARTICLES ProJourno-Report-2016-FINAL-interactive_redstrela92
This document describes a journalism incubator program hosted by Pro Journo in Nairobi, Kenya in 2016. Seven environmental science and journalism students from Europe and Russia reported on topics related to environmental economics, business, and technology at the World Resources Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland. The program aimed to train students in business journalism and cover topics related to the environment and economics that often rely too heavily on classical economic thinking. The students produced several articles on issues like the circular economy, waste management, and environmental auditing.
Report - Social enterprises and the social economy going forwardESADE
This report provides a synthesis of the work of the independent Expert Group of the European Commission on Social Entrepreneurship and its main findings in a context where social enterprises have gained in importance in European and national policies in recent years. We need more of these enterprises with a social “DNA”, to ensure that we build a fair, inclusive and sustainable social market. By focusing on people as much as profit, they foster a sense of social cohesion and promote the common good.
This document discusses social innovation in the European Union. It argues that social innovation is needed now more than ever to address pressing social needs in a time of budget constraints. Social challenges like unemployment, aging populations, and climate change have worsened due to the economic crisis. New solutions are required that make better use of limited resources. The EU supports social innovation through various programmes and initiatives. However, barriers like financing, skills gaps, and lack of data still exist. The document makes recommendations for EU action to further promote social innovation.
This document discusses applying technology to address challenges in the global refugee crisis. It examines the roles and responsibilities of various entities involved in using or contributing to technology for refugees, including refugees themselves, aid agencies, host countries, donors, technology companies, and research organizations. It also explores how technology is currently used in refugee settings for internet access, communication, information, education, employment, aid management, and identity issues. The document aims to inform organizations assisting refugees on the effective and ethical use of technology.
This document provides an introduction to digital business ecosystems, including:
- It discusses the roots and development of digital business ecosystems as a concept originating from efforts to promote an information society and knowledge-based economy in Europe.
- It recognizes that businesses require new technologies, applications, and services to enable networked and collaborative operations in the knowledge-based economy.
- The document presents research on digital business ecosystems funded through European Commission projects, exploring technologies, economic and social aspects, case studies, and more.
This document summarizes the proceedings of a series of exchanges organized by SMES-B, a Belgian non-profit organization, in 2010 as part of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. The exchanges focused on making contact with homeless individuals and addressing the complex social and mental vulnerabilities they face. Over four events, participants discussed topics like ethics and responsibility, care for the homeless, mental health reform, and challenges of reintegration. The document outlines SMES-B's work with homeless individuals and efforts to address the multifaceted issues surrounding homelessness.
HEPA Handbook Physical activity promotion of older peopleLuca Pietrantoni
The HEPA Handbook provides a framework to promote physical activity among seniors in European cities. It addresses the challenge of an aging population in Europe through four elements: 1) a HEPA framework of 43 spheres of activity for local implementation, 2) a toolbox of 130 tested tools for each sphere, 3) a benchmarking tool to assess local situations, and 4) guidance for developing local HEPA action plans through stakeholder committees. The goal is to encourage active lifestyles and physical activity among older community members to maintain independence and quality of life while preventing health issues. The Handbook was developed by six partner cities that gathered best practices from over 60 municipalities on successful local programs.
The document describes the 20,000 Days campaign, which aimed to reduce demand on Middlemore Hospital in Counties Manukau Health by returning 20,000 days to the community. It did this through 13 collaborative teams testing interventions using the Breakthrough Series Collaborative model. By July 2013 the campaign had achieved over 23,000 days saved. Key factors in its success were alignment around the goal of reducing hospital demand, leadership and expert support for teams, multi-professional teams working across sectors, and a structured series of activities. The collaborative approach proved effective for implementing evidence-based changes.
This document is a report from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on corporate social responsibility in a global economy. It provides an introduction to the topic, explaining that while companies create value, jobs and finance welfare, their activities also have broader social impacts that companies have a responsibility to consider. The report discusses Norway's increasing global engagement and the ethical challenges that can arise. It aims to clarify expectations, roles and responsibilities of government, business and other actors to strengthen guidance and promote social responsibility. A key focus is corporate conduct abroad, particularly in unstable, poor or corrupt markets where expertise may be needed.
D3 2 labour mobility in EU member states best practices policies digital jo...Ricardo Nobre
This document summarizes a report on labour mobility in EU member states. It identifies best practices and policies to increase labour mobility through interviews with experts from 6 countries and analysis of initiatives in EU countries and the US. Key recommendations include promoting exchange programs, involving stakeholders, making better use of existing EU programs, and providing more support for foreign workers. The report also provides recommendations for the EU to further stimulate mobility, such as promoting brain circulation, simplifying tax systems for knowledge workers, increasing awareness and support for EU programs, and focusing more on families and dual careers when attracting talent.
This document summarizes a report on labour mobility in EU member states. It identifies best practices and policies to increase labour mobility through interviews with experts from 6 countries and analysis of initiatives in EU countries and the US. Key recommendations include offering exchange programs, involving stakeholders, making better use of existing EU programs, and providing more support for foreign workers. The report also provides recommendations to the EU to promote mobility, simplify tax systems across countries, increase programs focused on experienced professionals and families, create a skills dashboard, and foster collaboration between EU departments.
Concept stores for kids are a growing market in UK - CORNU EstelleEstelle Cornu
This document provides a summary of the author's internship experience at Bigoodi, a new concept store for kids in London, England. Bigoodi offers children's hair salon services, birthday parties, and a retail space selling clothing and accessories for kids. The author discusses the creation of Bigoodi by a mother who struggled to find a suitable hair salon for her kids, as well as the company structure. Additionally, the author analyzes Bigoodi's marketing mix and their own work functions during the internship, before concluding with an overview of the growth of concept stores for kids in the UK and abroad.
Traditionally, the pension systems of most Western European countries were textbook examples for the dominance of public pay-as-you-go pensions. This has changed.
The Mott Foundation’s 2012 Annual Report examines the phenomenal growth of the community foundation field as well as Mott’s long-standing commitment to its spread and vitality. Timed for release as the field begins a year-long celebration in 2014 of the 100th anniversary of the community foundation movement, the publication includes a narrative section that describes Mott’s contributions to the field, our current focus and the lessons learned over the years.
CECP and Deloitte conducted research to develop global standards for defining and measuring corporate philanthropy. They analyzed corporate giving practices across 16 countries through a survey of tax codes, regulations and reporting practices. The results informed criteria for the Global Guide, which provides an international framework for tracking, reporting and benchmarking global corporate contributions in a consistent manner. This allows for improved transparency and comparison of social investment data.
Romania and ILO-Decade of cooperation-2000-2009-minAhmet Ozirmak
The document summarizes a decade of cooperation between the Government of Romania and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to eliminate child labour in Romania from 2000 to 2009. Key activities included developing Romania's first national program on child labour elimination in 2000 with ILO support, implementing projects to combat trafficking and worst forms of child labour, and establishing a child labour monitoring system. While progress was made, challenges remain such as approving a list of hazardous child labour and strengthening the legal framework around certain activities involving children. The ILO recognizes the commitment of Romanian partners to continue efforts towards ensuring no child is compelled to work.
Mapping momentum, the systems studio and sigGorka Espiau
This document summarizes different roles that are helping to build the field of systems change. It includes two tables: Table 1 describes roles at different stages of systems change work including intrapreneurs, strategists, illuminators, facilitators, conveners, and experimenters. Table 2 outlines the types of challenges that systems change leaders are tackling such as sustainability, public services, health, education, and finance/economy. It provides examples of individuals and organizations working in each of these areas.
The Northern Ireland Scaling AcceleratorGorka Espiau
The AmplifyNI Scaling Accelerator is an innovation support programme to rapidly accelerate the growth of new solutions to social problems in Northern Ireland. It is delivered by the Young Foundation and funded by the Department of Social Development.
- The conference brought together over 1000 participants from 56 countries to discuss enabling the data revolution through open data and coordinate action.
- Participants highlighted growing political commitment to open data and its role in sustainable development. The availability of open data is fueling innovation around the world in sectors like health, education, and transportation.
- Discussions focused on building on the impacts of open data, understanding how to harness its potential through common principles and infrastructure, and ensuring its benefits are available to all.
Here is the resume of the contribution by Dr Igor Calzada, MBA to the 2016 Strategic Innovation Summit on Smart Cities that took place in Dublin, held by Harvard University and Dublin City Council on 13th October 2016.
To cite the publication:
Calzada, I. (2016), (Un)Plugging Smart Cities Transformations and Strategies in Europe, Harvard University Whitepaper contribution given on 13th October at 2016 Strategic Innovation Summit: Smart Cities Europe held by the Dublin City Council and the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard University in Dublin, Maynooth University. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.34524.80000.
This document is a report from the Expert Group on Science Education to the European Commission that provides recommendations for improving science education in Europe. The report identifies key challenges in science education and proposes a framework with six objectives to address them: 1) making science education a continuum from pre-school through active citizenship, 2) focusing on competencies and linking science to other disciplines, 3) enhancing teaching quality, 4) increasing collaboration between educational and societal actors, 5) promoting responsible research and innovation, and 6) connecting innovation and science education strategies across levels. The report recommends the European Commission initiate an EU-wide response including consultation and dissemination to implement the proposed actions.
FINAL ALL ARTICLES ProJourno-Report-2016-FINAL-interactive_redstrela92
This document describes a journalism incubator program hosted by Pro Journo in Nairobi, Kenya in 2016. Seven environmental science and journalism students from Europe and Russia reported on topics related to environmental economics, business, and technology at the World Resources Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland. The program aimed to train students in business journalism and cover topics related to the environment and economics that often rely too heavily on classical economic thinking. The students produced several articles on issues like the circular economy, waste management, and environmental auditing.
Report - Social enterprises and the social economy going forwardESADE
This report provides a synthesis of the work of the independent Expert Group of the European Commission on Social Entrepreneurship and its main findings in a context where social enterprises have gained in importance in European and national policies in recent years. We need more of these enterprises with a social “DNA”, to ensure that we build a fair, inclusive and sustainable social market. By focusing on people as much as profit, they foster a sense of social cohesion and promote the common good.
This document discusses social innovation in the European Union. It argues that social innovation is needed now more than ever to address pressing social needs in a time of budget constraints. Social challenges like unemployment, aging populations, and climate change have worsened due to the economic crisis. New solutions are required that make better use of limited resources. The EU supports social innovation through various programmes and initiatives. However, barriers like financing, skills gaps, and lack of data still exist. The document makes recommendations for EU action to further promote social innovation.
This document discusses applying technology to address challenges in the global refugee crisis. It examines the roles and responsibilities of various entities involved in using or contributing to technology for refugees, including refugees themselves, aid agencies, host countries, donors, technology companies, and research organizations. It also explores how technology is currently used in refugee settings for internet access, communication, information, education, employment, aid management, and identity issues. The document aims to inform organizations assisting refugees on the effective and ethical use of technology.
This document provides an introduction to digital business ecosystems, including:
- It discusses the roots and development of digital business ecosystems as a concept originating from efforts to promote an information society and knowledge-based economy in Europe.
- It recognizes that businesses require new technologies, applications, and services to enable networked and collaborative operations in the knowledge-based economy.
- The document presents research on digital business ecosystems funded through European Commission projects, exploring technologies, economic and social aspects, case studies, and more.
This document summarizes the proceedings of a series of exchanges organized by SMES-B, a Belgian non-profit organization, in 2010 as part of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. The exchanges focused on making contact with homeless individuals and addressing the complex social and mental vulnerabilities they face. Over four events, participants discussed topics like ethics and responsibility, care for the homeless, mental health reform, and challenges of reintegration. The document outlines SMES-B's work with homeless individuals and efforts to address the multifaceted issues surrounding homelessness.
HEPA Handbook Physical activity promotion of older peopleLuca Pietrantoni
The HEPA Handbook provides a framework to promote physical activity among seniors in European cities. It addresses the challenge of an aging population in Europe through four elements: 1) a HEPA framework of 43 spheres of activity for local implementation, 2) a toolbox of 130 tested tools for each sphere, 3) a benchmarking tool to assess local situations, and 4) guidance for developing local HEPA action plans through stakeholder committees. The goal is to encourage active lifestyles and physical activity among older community members to maintain independence and quality of life while preventing health issues. The Handbook was developed by six partner cities that gathered best practices from over 60 municipalities on successful local programs.
The document describes the 20,000 Days campaign, which aimed to reduce demand on Middlemore Hospital in Counties Manukau Health by returning 20,000 days to the community. It did this through 13 collaborative teams testing interventions using the Breakthrough Series Collaborative model. By July 2013 the campaign had achieved over 23,000 days saved. Key factors in its success were alignment around the goal of reducing hospital demand, leadership and expert support for teams, multi-professional teams working across sectors, and a structured series of activities. The collaborative approach proved effective for implementing evidence-based changes.
This document is a report from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on corporate social responsibility in a global economy. It provides an introduction to the topic, explaining that while companies create value, jobs and finance welfare, their activities also have broader social impacts that companies have a responsibility to consider. The report discusses Norway's increasing global engagement and the ethical challenges that can arise. It aims to clarify expectations, roles and responsibilities of government, business and other actors to strengthen guidance and promote social responsibility. A key focus is corporate conduct abroad, particularly in unstable, poor or corrupt markets where expertise may be needed.
D3 2 labour mobility in EU member states best practices policies digital jo...Ricardo Nobre
This document summarizes a report on labour mobility in EU member states. It identifies best practices and policies to increase labour mobility through interviews with experts from 6 countries and analysis of initiatives in EU countries and the US. Key recommendations include promoting exchange programs, involving stakeholders, making better use of existing EU programs, and providing more support for foreign workers. The report also provides recommendations for the EU to further stimulate mobility, such as promoting brain circulation, simplifying tax systems for knowledge workers, increasing awareness and support for EU programs, and focusing more on families and dual careers when attracting talent.
This document summarizes a report on labour mobility in EU member states. It identifies best practices and policies to increase labour mobility through interviews with experts from 6 countries and analysis of initiatives in EU countries and the US. Key recommendations include offering exchange programs, involving stakeholders, making better use of existing EU programs, and providing more support for foreign workers. The report also provides recommendations to the EU to promote mobility, simplify tax systems across countries, increase programs focused on experienced professionals and families, create a skills dashboard, and foster collaboration between EU departments.
Concept stores for kids are a growing market in UK - CORNU EstelleEstelle Cornu
This document provides a summary of the author's internship experience at Bigoodi, a new concept store for kids in London, England. Bigoodi offers children's hair salon services, birthday parties, and a retail space selling clothing and accessories for kids. The author discusses the creation of Bigoodi by a mother who struggled to find a suitable hair salon for her kids, as well as the company structure. Additionally, the author analyzes Bigoodi's marketing mix and their own work functions during the internship, before concluding with an overview of the growth of concept stores for kids in the UK and abroad.
Traditionally, the pension systems of most Western European countries were textbook examples for the dominance of public pay-as-you-go pensions. This has changed.
The Mott Foundation’s 2012 Annual Report examines the phenomenal growth of the community foundation field as well as Mott’s long-standing commitment to its spread and vitality. Timed for release as the field begins a year-long celebration in 2014 of the 100th anniversary of the community foundation movement, the publication includes a narrative section that describes Mott’s contributions to the field, our current focus and the lessons learned over the years.
CECP and Deloitte conducted research to develop global standards for defining and measuring corporate philanthropy. They analyzed corporate giving practices across 16 countries through a survey of tax codes, regulations and reporting practices. The results informed criteria for the Global Guide, which provides an international framework for tracking, reporting and benchmarking global corporate contributions in a consistent manner. This allows for improved transparency and comparison of social investment data.
Romania and ILO-Decade of cooperation-2000-2009-minAhmet Ozirmak
The document summarizes a decade of cooperation between the Government of Romania and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to eliminate child labour in Romania from 2000 to 2009. Key activities included developing Romania's first national program on child labour elimination in 2000 with ILO support, implementing projects to combat trafficking and worst forms of child labour, and establishing a child labour monitoring system. While progress was made, challenges remain such as approving a list of hazardous child labour and strengthening the legal framework around certain activities involving children. The ILO recognizes the commitment of Romanian partners to continue efforts towards ensuring no child is compelled to work.
Mapping momentum, the systems studio and sigGorka Espiau
This document summarizes different roles that are helping to build the field of systems change. It includes two tables: Table 1 describes roles at different stages of systems change work including intrapreneurs, strategists, illuminators, facilitators, conveners, and experimenters. Table 2 outlines the types of challenges that systems change leaders are tackling such as sustainability, public services, health, education, and finance/economy. It provides examples of individuals and organizations working in each of these areas.
The Northern Ireland Scaling AcceleratorGorka Espiau
The AmplifyNI Scaling Accelerator is an innovation support programme to rapidly accelerate the growth of new solutions to social problems in Northern Ireland. It is delivered by the Young Foundation and funded by the Department of Social Development.
The document announces the launch of Amplify Leeds, a partnership between Leeds City Council, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and The Young Foundation. Amplify Leeds aims to understand the challenges people in Leeds face and their vision for the city's future through research and community activities. It also details the Leeds Accelerator program which will work with 15 social entrepreneurs over 3 months to accelerate their ventures through business support and training in areas like finance, social value and implementation. The document calls for people and organizations to get involved in Amplify Leeds and for businesses to partner with the Leeds Accelerator.
This document provides information about an event called "Amplify Northern Ireland" taking place on June 22nd from 1-5pm at the Ulster Museum. The event will feature 24 social innovation projects presented in an Innovation Marketplace and talks in the Big Ideas Room on topics like urban planning, digital fabrication, and youth leadership. Attendees can learn about the projects, provide support to them, and help create an exhibition showing a vision for transforming Northern Ireland. Refreshments will be provided and a panel discussion will reflect on next steps after the event concludes.
This event is taking place on June 22nd at the Ulster Museum from 1-5pm. It will feature 8 talks on new ways to achieve social change in Northern Ireland, an exhibition of a better future for NI created by attendees, and an innovation marketplace of 24 social projects. The goal is to harness creativity to grow a social movement. Attendees can register for free by June 14th.
This document explores the potential for social innovation in manufacturing through "maker manufacturing". It identifies three dimensions of social innovation in manufacturing: 1) Democratization of making through open tools and sharing of knowledge; 2) Supply chains for good through full transparency; and 3) Corporate citizenship by making social/environmental impact part of business strategy and decision-making. The document argues that maker manufacturing could contribute to the European Commission's agenda of jobs, growth, fairness and democratic change, but risks need to be managed. It calls for political support to realize the potential of this emerging field.
Este documento describe una jornada sobre innovación centrada en la ciudadanía organizada por EUDEL. La jornada incluyó una conferencia sobre nuevas tendencias en el diseño de servicios públicos centrados en los ciudadanos y un taller técnico sobre metodologías como los mapas de viaje del ciudadano y los arquetipos de personas. El objetivo era mostrar a los municipios vascos cómo incorporar la perspectiva de los ciudadanos en el rediseño de servicios para mejorar la atención a la ciudadanía.
Twentieth century brit hist 2015-butler-tcbh hwu063Gorka Espiau
This document discusses the Institute of Community Studies (ICS) founded in 1953 in East London by sociologist Michael Young. The ICS emphasized research on extended family networks and kinship in working-class communities. While Young claimed this focus emerged from their research, the document argues it was informed by Young's preexisting political views. As a Labour politician, Young believed the family could serve as a model for cooperative socialism. The ICS promoted the idea that strong family and community ties provided mutual support for urban workers. However, their rosy portrayal of working-class life may have overlooked residents' own mixed feelings. Overall, the document examines how Young's sociological work at the ICS was shaped by his political goal of emphasizing
El documento presenta el programa del Congreso de Organización y Gestión Pública (COEP) que se celebrará en Logroño del 10 al 12 de marzo de 2015. Los seis ejes temáticos principales son la relación entre administración y ciudadanía, la creación de valor público, la ética, el liderazgo innovador, la organización municipal orientada a la ciudadanía y las ciudades inteligentes. El programa incluye ponencias, mesas redondas y paneles de experiencias sobre estos temas.
Ii congreso europeo de proximidad participación y ciudadaníaGorka Espiau
El documento es una invitación a participar como ponente en el II Congreso Europeo de Proximidad Participación y Ciudadanía que se celebrará en Logroño del 10 al 12 de marzo. Se proporciona información sobre la página web del congreso y su programa, así como un descuento en las inscripciones previas al 17 de febrero.
This document provides an overview of innovation in smaller countries, focusing on case studies of Finland, Estonia, Singapore, Israel, and the Basque Country. It finds that these smaller, highly innovative countries have generally not copied the strategies of larger nations. Key lessons include the importance of downstream innovation applications in addition to upstream research; openness to ideas and opportunities from around the world; a sense of national mission around innovation; government policies that broadly support innovation; and strong but flexible innovation institutions. These lessons are relevant for Scotland and other smaller regions as they consider how to foster innovation-led growth.
"Integrated end of life care: the role of social services" by Roberto Nuño-So...Gorka Espiau
This editorial discusses the role of social services in integrated end-of-life care. It notes that most people in industrialized countries will die from chronic diseases and that end-of-life care is often fragmented and uncoordinated. It advocates for more home-based and palliative care models that address patients' broader needs and preferences. The editorial highlights a social innovation project in the Basque Country called SAIATU that provides 24/7 social and companionship services to support families at end of life. This integrated model has achieved reductions in health care utilization of around €8,000 per case by filling gaps between standard health and social services. The editorial argues that palliative care should be more holistic and include social
Intelligent city forum london draft programme v 14 02 2014Gorka Espiau
The document summarizes an expert forum on future mobility and transport innovation hosted by the London School of Economics and Political Science on March 25, 2014. The one-day event brought together leading experts from government, industry, and academia in the UK and Germany to discuss trends in urban mobility systems and share innovative case studies. Sessions included presentations on mobility trends in Berlin and London based on a joint research survey, examples of integrated transport systems from London and electric mobility projects from Berlin, and discussions of how technology and policy can enable smart transport infrastructure. The goal of the forum was to engage transport innovators in developing sustainable and shared mobility solutions for intelligent cities.
The document provides the schedule for the International Peace Conference 2013 held from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th May 2013 in Derry~Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The conference featured speakers on peacebuilding efforts in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Colombia. Panel discussions included local politicians and commentators sharing their visions for peace. Interactive workshops on Sunday covered various peacebuilding tools and dealing with conflicts. The schedule concluded with tours of Derry~Londonderry highlighting historical sites related to the conflict.
This document announces a presentation event on social innovation in Bilbao, Spain on June 28th. It will include a presentation of the European Guide to Social Innovation, discussions on how social innovation can support smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe. Attendees will learn how some European regions have included social innovation in their smart specialization strategies and hear about best practices from the Basque Country. The event will conclude with the presentation of the regional index of social innovation (Resindex) pilot project to measure the state of social innovation in Europe.
International Upcycling Research Network advisory board meeting 4Kyungeun Sung
Slides used for the International Upcycling Research Network advisory board 4 (last one). The project is based at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Best Digital Marketing Strategy Build Your Online Presence 2024.pptxpavankumarpayexelsol
This presentation provides a comprehensive guide to the best digital marketing strategies for 2024, focusing on enhancing your online presence. Key topics include understanding and targeting your audience, building a user-friendly and mobile-responsive website, leveraging the power of social media platforms, optimizing content for search engines, and using email marketing to foster direct engagement. By adopting these strategies, you can increase brand visibility, drive traffic, generate leads, and ultimately boost sales, ensuring your business thrives in the competitive digital landscape.
RPWORLD offers custom injection molding service to help customers develop products ramping up from prototypeing to end-use production. We can deliver your on-demand parts in as fast as 7 days.
4. “This is European Social Innovation” was instigated, coordinated and produced by Louise Pulford,
Social Innovation eXchange (SIX), Filippo Addarii, Euclid Network, in partnership with the Social
Innovation Park, Bilbao.
SIX
The Social Innovation eXchange (SIX) is a global community of over 1000 individuals and
organisations – including small NGOs and global firms, public agencies and academics – committed
to promoting social innovation and growing the capacity of the field. SIX aims to improve the
methods with which our societies find better solutions to challenges such as ageing, climate change,
inequality and healthcare. The members of SIX have been closely involved in policy design in many
fields – including the creation of innovation funds, incubators, user-led design and Social Business
Parks. SIX has designed and implemented an ambitious programme of global events - some focus
on specific regions and issues, while others utilise Cisco’s TelePresence technology to bring together
partners from across the globe to share learning and methods.
SIX was instigated by the Young Foundation, UK, and this is where the network’s secretariat is
now based.
www.socialinnovationexchange.org - www.youngfoundation.org
Euclid Network
Euclid Network is a growing community of civil society professionals who want to connect across
borders for a stronger, more innovative and sustainable European civil society. With 300 members
and a wider network of 3000 civil society practitioners and engaged professionals, we empower the
network to become the changemakers of civil society – challenging the status quo, bringing solutions
to the table and fostering collaboration and peer-learning across boundaries. We are a pan-European
network working both within and beyond the EU member states. However, we also fully embrace
"Global Europe", connecting Europeans to civil society across the world. Working on sector-wide
challenges that affect all our members (such as sustainability, effectiveness, innovation and policy) we
use the power of the network and the strength of our partnerships with private and public institutions
to bring about lasting change for European civil society and society as a whole.
www.euclidnetwork.eu
Social Innovation Park
The Social Innovation Park (SI Park) is a pioneering initiative promoted by DenokInn, the Basque
Centre for Social and Corporate Innovation, aiming to provide the best environment for social leaders,
private companies and institutions to cooperate, learn from each other and to launch new large scale
initiatives. SI Park will host consolidated social enterprises and international innovation projects in the
Greater Bilbao area of Northern Spain. All of them will benefit from the services incorporated into the
100,000 square meters of infrastructure: the Social Innovation Laboratory (G-Lab), the Social Innova-
tion Academy and the Social Enterprise Generator.
www.denokinn.eu/
7. Foreword
What brings Danish bees, Portuguese students, German parents,
Italian healthcare workers, Turkish scuba divers, Dutch digital pioneers,
French fitness trainers, English Community scouts and Romanian
birth certificates together? And what does Europe have to do with it?
As the remarkable stories in this short book demonstrate, it is about
the courageous and committed people who use their creativity
and ideas to solve problems. Moreover, innovation is important
insofar as it is our capacity to shape the future we desire.
As these encouraging and enlightening examples show, Europe
has a strong potential for social innovation, a potential that-
should be used even better. I therefore wish to recognise our social innovators and make these
success stories known so that others are inspired. In so doing, I hope to help strengthen social in-
novation as a whole in Europe.
We have therefore included in our “Innovation Union” proposal the launch of a European Social Innovation
pilot, which will provide expertise and a virtual hub network for social entrepreneurs and the general
public. We hope this will be just the beginning of a common journey to a Europe to which we aspire,
satisfying the Europe 2020 strategy. A Europe where the concept of a social market economy is our
reference, fulfilling the promise of the Treaty of Lisbon. A Europe that does not consider the market as
an end per se, but as a means to ensure and achieve social policy. And where I believe, social innovation
can serve as one of our most valuable instruments.
Antonio Tajani
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8. What is “This is European
Social Innovation”?
Across the world, millions of people are creating better ways to tackle some of the most challenging
social problems of our times. “This is European Social Innovation – A call for inspiring stories” proves
that Europe is no exception.
From over one hundred inspiring social innovation stories, spanning twenty-three countries, our jury
chose 10 projects which illustrate some of the most promising innovations happening at the moment
in different fields and countries across Europe.
The current financial and economic crisis makes social innovation more important than ever - both
as a component of economic strategies to build Europe’s relative position in growing fields such as
healthcare and environmental services, and as a vital contribution to achieving greater value for money
in public services. We must look to social innovation to stimulate a more dynamic, inclusive and
sustainable social market economy.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of social innovations in Europe. Many are very well established - from
the Mondragon group of Cooperatives in the Basque Country in Spain, to France’s Emmaus communities
which are now established all over Europe and Italy’s San Patrignano which is now the largest drug
rehabilitation community in the world. Some are less well established, as individuals, communities,
organisations and companies begin searching for new ways, and adapting old ones, to address the
modern societal challenges.
Despite this activity, the field of social innovation has yet to mature enough to tackle the multitude of chal-
lenges society presents it with. Many innovative projects and programmes remain small, under-funded,
and are not sustainable, therefore having restricted impact. Funding specifically intended for growing
social innovations is limited, and often provided by philanthropists. In order to move from its current
state of fragmented good ideas, to a place where social innovations are making a more consistent,
more efficient impact across all areas of need, successful social innovations in Europe must be more
visible.
So together, Euclid and SIX networks, with the support of the Social Innovation Park in Bilbao, Spain,
and the European Commission launched “This is European Social Innovation – a call for inspiring sto-
ries”. Our aim was to identify and highlight some of the most promising innovative initiatives, thereby
raising the profile of social innovation across Europe, and creating an impact beyond the established
social innovation community. The 10 selected projects were identified because of their potential for
impact, and relevance to the issues facing Europe. We have not attempted to classify the best social
innovation initiatives, rather, we have chosen to highlight some of the most promising innovations
happening at the moment in different fields and countries across Europe.
8 | DG Entreprises & Industry
9. What do we mean
by social innovation?
The term“social innovation”is a relatively new one, but social
innovation itself is not new. There are many examples of Social innovation is about new
social innovations throughout history, from kindergartens ideas that work to address pressing
to hospices, and from the cooperative movement to unmet needs. We simply describe it
microfinance. A “field” of social innovation, however, is
as innovations that are both social
a new idea.
in their ends and in their means.
As foundations, governments and businesses begin Social innovations are new ideas
to invest, momentum for this concept is gathering. (products, services and models) that
Discussions often focus on the terminology and around simultaneously meet social needs
the world many organisations offer different definitions
(more effectively than alternatives)
of what it is, who does it, and how they do it. Within
Europe, the lack of clarity of the concept impacts and create new social relationships
different regions and different industries in different or collaborations.
ways. Social innovation in Europe is often confused with
social enterprise or is limited to the social field. It is not
taken seriously by many, especially in newer member
This draws on the definition in the Open
states, and for part of the social economy - especially old
Book of Social Innovation, March 2010,
school cooperatives - it’s the horse of troy for the private
Murray, Calulier-Grice and Mulgan
sector to access funding historically ear-marked for social
projects.
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10. Europe and the challenge of social
innovation
We were aware that social innovation can be misunderstood and is often not well received in Europe
before we launched this initiative, so we expected to face some difficulties. Our main challenge
was accessing social innovations. The lack of a strong, mature European focused network of social
innovators, and an uneven access to new technologies in Europe meant the information about
this competition was not easy to disseminate widely. In addition, people running great projects in
their local community often do not identify as social innovators, and thus disqualified themselves
as possible entries. The combination of social innovations often being small or young, and the
underdevelopment of measurement tools for social innovation resulting in a lack of visible impact,
made the competition relatively unsellable to the media.
Despite this, we received over one hundred applications from twenty-three countries. The applications
were impressive, diverse and showed the vitality of work on the ground. Entries came from all over
Europe, from the EU’s founding member states, as well as the new member states of Romania and
Bulgaria. The projects we received were both new, for example ONE, the first Social Impact Bond
which is being piloted in the UK to help stop reoffending, to well established innovations, like
therapeutic approaches to medical problems, such as those the JERI project at the HUCH Jorvi
Hospital in Finland uses with patients with mental health problems. Some entries were successful
replications and adaptations of existing projects, such as Portugal’s Generation Orchestra which is
based on the child and youth orchestras in Venezuela, and Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa, a socially conscious
bank in the Basques Country, Spain which provides microfinance (a service originating in Bangladesh).
The entries showed the breadth of ways people are tackling similar social problems in their own
communities and regions, from different applications of “the Hub” model all over Europe, to multiple
ways of engaging citizens in decision making. Other entries, like the Hiriko Driving Mobility –a project
that will fabricate the first folding vehicle designed to be fully electric and integrated into the public
transportation system – focus more on whole system transformation and could change the way we
live our lives altogether.
10 | DG Entreprises & Industry
11. Introducing the Jury
Alain Coheur is the Director of Social Economy Europe, the EU-level
representative institution for the social economy. He is the Chairman of
the International Cooperation Commission of the International Association
of Mutual Health Funds (AIM). Alain is also the Director of European and
International Affairs at the Belgian National Union of Socialist Mutual Health
Funds, and vice-chairman of the Technical Commission on Mutual Benefit
Societies. He has been a long term coordinator of many European projects
and organisations; since 1997 he has been coordinator of health projects
at the Euregio Meuse-Rhin, and since 2002 he has been coordinator of
the Franco-Belgian “Health Observatory”, of which he was the former Chairman, and Chairman of the
European Affairs Commission of the Belgian National Intermutualist College. Since 2007 he has also been
Chairman of the Belgian Non-Governmental Organisation “Solsoc”.
Diogo Vasconcelos has been Chair of SIX since spring 2009.
Diogo recently chaired the European Commission Business Panel on Future
EU innovation policy. Since 2007, Diogo Vasconcelos has been a Distinguished
Fellow with Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), the global
strategy and innovation group of Cisco. He also Chairs the new international
NGO Dialogue Café. Before joining Cisco, Diogo was the Economic Knowledge
Advisor to the Portuguese President of Republic Prof Cavaco Silva and lead the
President’s widely studied digital campaign and“digital presidency”. Diogo was
founder and president of UMIC, the Portuguese Knowledge Society Agency.
He was also a member of the board of the Innovation Agency. Before that, he was elected as a member of
Parliament and was Vice-President of the Social Democratic Party and its spokesperson for Innovation. Prior to
that, Diogo founded a multimedia company and published the first magazines in Portugal about the internet
and entrepreneurship, and launched the Entrepreneurs Academy.
Ewa Konczal has been with Ashoka since 2000 and currently leads Ashoka
in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. Prior to joining Ashoka Ewa worked
in Egypt, where she co-created the Egyptian Polish Businessman Association.
She has also volunteered with the Global March Against Child Labour in Delhi,
India. Pursuing her passions – mountaineering - in 2004 Ewa founded her
own organisation, Magic Mountain Foundation, that creates opportunities for
various disadvantaged youth and adults to climb their own Everest.
Ewa is a Ford Motor Company Fellow and a member of the Remarque
Forum at New York City University. In 2006 Ewa received the AIESEC
International Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship Award and entered
the AIESEC Alumni Hall of Fame. Her work has also been recognized by several Polish organizations,
who presented her with The Friend of the Poor Children Award and EKO School of Life Medal for
supporting work with the socially excluded.
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12. Geoff Mulgan is Chief Executive of The Young Foundation, one of the
world’s leading centres for social innovation, social enterprise and public
policy. Between 1997 and 2004 Geoff had various roles in government
including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy
in the Prime Minister’s office. Before that he was the founder and Director
of the think-tank Demos. He has also been Chief Adviser to Gordon
Brown MP; a lecturer in telecommunications; an investment executive;
and a reporter on BBC TV and radio. He is a visiting professor at LSE,
UCL, Melbourne University and lectures regularly at the China Executive
Leadership Academy. He has been a board member of the Work Foundation, the Health Innovation
Council and the Design Council, chair of Involve, and has served on many task forces and commissions.
He is also chairing a Carnegie Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in the UK and Ireland.
Peter Dröll is currently the head of the Innovation Development Unit in
the European Commission’s Enterprise and Industry Department. He joined
the European Commission as member of financial control, responsible
inter alia for the Environment Institute of the Commission’s Joint Research
Centre in Ispra (IT). He continued in the legal unit of the Commission’s
Environment Department, with the remit to monitor and ensure
transposition and implementation of EU environmental legislation. With the
opening of accession negotiations in 1998, he joined the Commission’s
negotiation task force as member of the Poland team. In this position he
was coordinator of environmental negotiations with all accession countries. In 2002, he joined the
Cabinet of Commissioner Günter Verheugen and was later an appointed Assistant to the Director
General for Enlargement. In 2004, he was appointed as Head of Cabinet of the Science and Research
Commissioner Janez Potočnik.
Rosa Gallego works as a Deputy Manager of the Spanish Association of
Foundations, a membership association with more than 1,000 foundations.
Since January 2009 she has also served as Chairperson of DAFNE (Donors
and Foundations Networks in Europe) which gathers 22 associations of
foundations and funders from across Europe, representing more than
5,500 members. Rosa’s professional experience started in the UK working
for AFS (American Field Service), an international association in the field of
education and intercultural learning. Following that she worked for two
years at the Spanish Branch of AFS leading a project to promote intercultural
education in the Spanish Educational system. Between 1999 and 2001 she served as Secretary General
of the International Young Nature Friends in Brussels, a network of youth organizations with presence
in more than fifteen European countries.
12 | DG Entreprises & Industry
13. Stephen Bubb is the Chief Executive of the Association of Chief
Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) – a dynamic and high
profile UK third sector body. He has been the Secretary General of Euclid
Network since 2007, and is also the Chair of Social Investment Business. He
is a member of the Commonwealth Foundation’s Civil Society Committee,
an Independent Assessor for high profile public appointments and a
member of the Honours Advisory Committee. He has held major roles
in UK trade organisations; in the TGWU (Transport and General Workers
Union), the NUT (National Union of Teachers) and the AMA (Association
of Metropolitan Authorities). He was Founding Personnel Director of the National Lottery Charities
Board, served as a Councillor in Lambeth and was an active member of the health authorities for
Guys and St Thomas’ over two decades.
Simona Paravani is the Global Strategy Chief Investment Officer for
Wealth at HSBC. Simona has been working in the finance industry since
1998. Prior to this role, Simona was Chief Investment Officer for HSBC
Global Asset Management (USA) Inc, which involved overseeing the
New York based liquidity and Multimanager investment capabilities, and
leading the development of innovative investment solutions for HSBC
customer groups in the US. Simona joined HSBC in 2004 as an Asset
Allocation Economist. Previous to this she has worked for Julius Baer Asset
Management and Orbis Investment Advisory in London. Simona holds a
graduate degree from Cambridge University.
Selecting the projects
Our jury were asked to select 10 projects. They were asked to ensure the 10 selected projects illustrate
diversity – both in terms of geography, sector and social challenge. The judges were asked to consider
the following 3 criteria which we think help identify a social innovation:
1 Is it useful? Does it tackle a real social or environmental need cost-efficiently?
2 Does it have meaning for those who are involved in it, both for those delivering the service/
product (the suppliers), and for those receiving it – (the demand) ?
3 Does it create new and effective relationships in society?
The following pages tell 10 of these remarkable innovation journeys.
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14. The 10 selected projects
Connected Care, UK
“Building social capital, willingness and trust in deprived communities
is a long road. So many residents tell us that they are “surveyed to death”.
http://www.turning-point.co.uk
An unjust Kingdom
The inverse care law states that the people who need social care support the most have the most
problems accessing it. This injustice has large scale negative impacts. When services fail in this way,
the most marginalised suffer, weakened by disenfranchised communities and neighbourhood prob-
lems that spiral out of control. Through peer-led research, Connected Care, Turning Point’s model of
community-led commissioning, is working hard to reach the heart of fragmented communities in
order to build social capital and develop new solutions to health and social care problems. Connected
Care enables the community to tackle the root cause of poor outcomes for service users.
Social innovation heroes
Connected Care recruits and trains local people to work as Community Researchers. They have access
to the marginalized groups most in need of help, those with complex needs, and those who don’t
access or engage with services. The Community Researchers live in the area they research. They often
have links with, or need for, the local health and social care services. This gives them unique access to
the people most often missed by social services. Working for Connected Care often gives them a new
direction and confidence in starting something new. In return, the Community Researchers give their
time, energy, passion and, importantly, access to the hardest to reach members of the community.
Connected Care also works with frontline staff and commissioners who are committed to redesigning
services based on the needs of communities.
The innovation journey
The evidence base for Connected Care originated from research carried out by Turning Point, in con-
junction with IPPR in 2004. The report Meeting Complex Needs found that people with multiple needs
are often failed by existing health and social care services. It brought to light the gaps in current health
and social care services, finding they don’t provide joined-up, cost-effective services; they don’t address
the whole person; and they don’t meet complex needs. The report called for a much more connected
approach for all individuals living in deprived neighbourhoods. It called for the voice of the community
to be central to the design and delivery of all connected services. This led to Connected Care.
The Battle
To bring about real change authorities need to be convinced that community engagement must
be central to the design of the services. Building the required social capital, willingness and trust in
deprived communities is a long road. Connected Care addresses these issues by ensuring that the
design of services starts from within the community, and focuses on the needs of citizens; that there
14 | DG Entreprises & Industry
15. are mechanisms in place to hold agencies to account to make this happen; and that commission-
ers embrace a radical shift in service approach, including stimulating and sustaining community-led
social enterprises.
The way back home
Connected Care programmes have been carried out in ten areas across the UK. 164 community
researchers have been recruited and trained, reaching community populations of 130,000. Connected
Care has helped different agencies to work together in partnership with these communities. Their vision
is to create a movement of community leaders coming together to tackle social problems in their own
area, with community engagement being integral to service design and delivery of local services.
Eltern-AG, Germany
“All children need equal opportunities... ELTERN-AG helps children with less
favourable conditions in early life, by first supporting their parents.”
www.eltern-ag.de/
An unjust kingdom
The OECD’s PISA (Program for International Student Assesment) survey in 2000 studied educational
outcomes in children from 43 countries across the world. The survey showed that even within the
abundant welfare state of Germany, children from poorer families had very little chance of achieving
a high-school diploma, let alone a university degree. Generally, these children had fewer chances of
success in life and suffered crucial disadvantages.
Social innovation heroes
In 2001, in a classroom of the small Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences, a group of
young students and their lecturer were inspired to do something about the educational inequalities suf-
fered by children from lower income families. They took the time to look into each and every existing
program offered by the state and various different welfare organizations, and found that the majority
of programs were aiding the middle classes the most. They were failing to engage successfully with
the parents and children who really needed them. Having discovered this, the group, which named
itself ELTERN-AG, left the classroom to discover the reason for this, by talking directly to the parents.
What they learned was that more often than not poorer parents felt intimidated by the unfamiliarity
of some of the very state institutions which were there to help them.
The innovation journey
The ELTERN-AG-group decided to tackle the problem through empowerment; they did not believe in
lecturing grownups, but wanted to galvanize them to help themselves. The group went to the poorer
quarters of the city, and looked for struggling families, for immigrants who couldn’t speak German,
for young single mothers, for fathers who had never learned how to cope with a nagging child. From
these people, they began to build the basis of the network of ELTERN-AG groups.
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16. The battle
In 2004 ELTERN-AG formed its first group. 10 parents came together in the “Daisy Kindergarten” in Magdeburg.
They had time to share stories and discuss the trial and tribulations of their everyday lives while their children
played. They discussed the things that mattered to them, such as best practice examples of how to celebrate
a children’s birthday party on a budget. The group met 20 times and results began to show. All the parents
stayed with the group; they now had friends and acquaintances, a social network, and the group decided to
continue the meetings for several years. The ELTERN-AG team had learnt a lot too. They had learnt to be men-
tors rather than teachers, tour guides rather than instructors. However financing the program was still an issue.
In 2004 the students and their professor set down everything in their vision, and everything they had learnt,
into a successful funding application to the Ministry for Social Affairs of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The way back home
To date, around 800 parents have participated in ELTERN-AG, which means around 2000 children
have been reached. 100 ELTERN-AG mentors have been trained by the original group, which has itself
developed into a professional team. ELTERN-AG groups have been held in five German states, and the
programme will soon expand to Austria and Switzerland. The empowerment concept is so successful,
that ELTERN-AG has been asked to turn their focus to new target groups, such as long term unem-
ployed people, and elderly people looking for a new perspective in their career.
La Petite Reine, France
“We are convinced that economic, socially and
environment-friendly sustainable development is the
key solution to better the unjust society we are living in.”
www.lapetitereine.com/fr
An unjust kingdom
La Petite Reine was created in 2001 by Gilles Manuelle, as a response to a two-fold issue. Goods delivery in city
centres is neither efficient nor ecological. Oversized delivery trucks often travel along overcrowded routes
several times a day, thus generating further traffic jams and pollution. The original aim of La Petite Reine was
to provide a more suitable transportation alternative for city centres. In 2009 La Petite Reine expanded their
commitment to sustainable development to include social action towards underprivileged people.
Social innovation heroes
La Petite Reine is directed by a team of devoted and skilled people, united by their conviction that so-
ciety needs to be driven towards a more ecological and social development. La Petite Reine became
part of the Ares Group (Association pour la Réinsertion Economique et Sociale) in 2009, a non-profit
people reintegration association created in 1991. Over the past 2 decades, Ares has been developing
firms which employ people experiencing social difficulties, such as homelessness, disabilities, and
academic underperformance. These firms, including La Petite Reine, maintain a strong social and pro-
fessional support methodology, so as to define a career path that matches each employee’s particular
desires and abilities. 60% of participants access a long-lasting job after Ares.
16 | DG Entreprises & Industry
17. The innovation journey
When La Petite Reine was established 10 years ago, its ambitious aim was to transform the inner city logistics
sector by streamlining delivery flows, utilizing logistic centres before peak hours and then organizing opti-
mized delivery tours, therefore decreasing traffic jams and pollution. La Petite Reine’s second innovation was in
the mode of delivery. They designed an electrical vehicle, the “Cargocycle” : a fierce and light three wheeled
bicycle equipped with a large trunk (1.5m3), that was able to utilize bike lanes and parks as easily as roads.
Their third innovation took place in 2009 in joining Ares, tackling the need for a growing workforce, with the
aim of providing professional development and employment to socially excluded groups. To ensure long term
benefits to the workforce, every employee is provided with personal weekly social and professional monitoring.
The Battle
The numerous problems faced by La Petite Reine have served both to develop the organisation’s
strengths, and to deepen its understanding of the issues it addresses and the relevance of its solution.
The most prominent issue was to gain recognition of the potential of the “cargocycle” from logistics
experts, demanding a great deal of conviction, technical expertise, and above all demonstration.
To achieve this La Petite Reine has needed to optimise its vehicles, logistic flows and social support.
Through doing this, it has reached the standards required by the logistics sector, and additionally
designed a new and economically, ecologically and socially sustainable take on logistics.
The way back home
La Petite Reine has achieved a considerable amount, but there is much left to be done. The potential
of growth is huge, and La Petite Reine has many ambitions. The “cargocycles” are already operating
in 5 major French cities: Paris, Rouen, Bordeaux, Dijon, Lyon, and in Geneva, and plans to extend the
model throughout the country, and across Europe.
Vitaever, Italy
“Vitaever is the largest distributive hospital in Europe for cancer,
with 3,300+ patients, 300+ professionals, and 1,300+ volunteers
across 10 regions of Italy”
www.vitaever.com
An unjust kingdom
Europe is currently experiencing a rapidly ageing population. Consequently there is an increase in patient
demand for home based healthcare, and national governments must invest in developing new healthcare
initiatives, particularly those which reduce the necessity of hospitalisation for chronic diseases. The ANT
Foundation successfully developed the largest EU home-based cancer hospital with over 3,300 patients
assisted in their homes, organized by 21 regional clusters throughout Italy. The ANT Hospital is composed
of around 224 medical professionals, and 1,300 volunteers in support roles. This amounts to a complex
system, affected by issues of communication limits, data and knowledge sharing, personnel and resource
scheduling, and asset tracking. Nethical utilizes information and mobile technology to address these issues
thereby helping ANT to offer the same care, benefits and efficiency of a traditional one-site hospital.
| 17
18. Social innovation heroes
Nethical, based in Bologna, Italy, is focused on developing SaaS (software-as-a-service) technologies
for remote healthcare providers. The company focuses both on optimizing the efficiency of healthcare
in western countries as well as on providing powerful tools to less-developed countries, such as Serbia
or Bangladesh. ANT Foundation is an Italian leading non-profit organization which has assisted over
78,000 patients in the advanced stages of cancer and their families since 1985. ANT offers free-of-
charge professional medical assistance, drugs, food and psychology consultancy as well as disease
prevention and screening programs. ANT has now launched several pilot programs across the EU.
The innovation journey
The broad technical background of Nethical and the solid medical expertise of ANT Foundation have
been combined to develop Vitaever. Launched in mid 2000, Vitaever provides cutting edge smart
technology to track, manage and optimize distribution of personnel, assets and goods for both
mobile healthcare services, and traditional one-site hospitals. Vitaever is distributed via Nethical’s SaaS
technology with no cost for installation, maintenance and server hardware.
The battle
Several technical issues were faced during the Vitaever project. Open source technologies and core
custom made blocks were mixed in order to address high performances and security. The development
of the technology required several rounds of testing and a multidisciplinary team, composed of ANT
doctors and Nethical technicians to convert ANT best practices into Vitaever procedures. This has been
the right approach, as today this task force is still generating feedback for the final tuning of Vitaever.
The way back home
The better version of Vitaever was completed in summer 2010, and today Vitaever is successfully tested
by ANT early-adopters. Full adoption of the technology is planned for the end of 2010. Because of this
collaboration, ANT has access to state-of-art technology, at prices under the market value. Nethical will
cover its investment by commercialising Vitaever, and by using this technology as building blocks for
future innovations. Nethical also plans to bring the Vitaever cost-saving model to developing countries,
starting with Bangladesh, as a means to overcoming economic barriers to access of healthcare technology.
Your Identity – a change for legal rights, Romania
“The fact that 96,4% of surveyed respondents have appreciated that these documents
were important, and lacking them would impede them in exercising civil rights
such as: the right to vote, the right to health care and the right to a legal job, proves
that the project accomplished its meaning.”
An unjust kingdom
“Your identity - a chance for legal rights”, was a successful project launched in 2005, under the
European Commission’s pre-ascension financial assistance program, “Phare”. The project’s aim
18 | DG Entreprises & Industry
19. was to address the need for identity documents for Roma people in Vrancea County, a group
exposed to social exclusion because of the lack of documents proving their birth or marital status.
The absence of these official documents makes it impossible to deal with the Romanian state
authorities and also excludes the Roma people from exercising the rights derived from citizenship:
social assistance, social security, political rights, and legal employment. Essentially, a person who
was not registered at birth does not exist in terms of administration for the Romanian state. This
explains the fact that in the 2002 statistical review of the Romanian population, 535140 of those
surveyed said they were Roma, whilst research conducted on nationally representative samples
estimate the number of Roma living in Romania at 1.5 million. Some of the consequences of this
issue include human trafficking, illegal adoptions, and incomplete access to political, social and
economic rights.
Social innovation heroes
Before the project was launched, these issues were not on the public agenda. To begin to successfully
address some of the issues surrounding the lack of Roma legal rights, many parties were involved.
With Vrancea County Council as the project leader, local authorities, specialized services, and NGOs
(Association “Rom for Rom” with the support of Panciu IBO Italy) were assembled. Leaders of Roma
communities were given a significant role in ensuring the success of the project’s activities.
The innovation journey
Three main steps were taken to increase the legal rights of the Roma population in Vrancea County. The
first step was providing information to the community and raising awareness of the importance of legal
rights. Next, it was necessary to help the Roma population understand their legal rights. This was done
using mobile station campaigns inside Roma communities, directly communicating with target group
members. The final step was to provide free legal assistance to those who never had birth certificates,
and did not exist in the Romanian state administration. Group members in this situation were helped
and monitored through the process, from their identification to the issue of birth certificates. This way,
procedures that could have lasted several years due to the bureaucracy of the system, were completed
during the 10 months of the project. Furthermore, sociological research was conducted and awareness of
the problems that Roma communities experience was raised both amongst the general public, and the
relevant authorities.
The project has helped 1,113 Roma persons receive identification and civil status documents,
allowing them to access the rights of Romanian citizenship. Local authorities have allocated funds to
develop new projects for solving the problems of the Roma communities. The collaborative relation-
ships between NGOs and the public sector, which was almost nonexistent at the beginning of the
project, have been strengthened significantly and the social exclusion of Roma communities, due to
the lack of identity documents, has been raised on the policy agenda.
The Battle
The main problems which the project encountered were the bureaucracy of the Romanian state, the
difficulties encountered during the process of birth registration, and the indifference of some public
institutions regarding the issues. Strong support from both project partners, and the local media
helped overcome these issues.
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20. The way back home
The lack of legal identity in Roma communities is now acknowledged as a problem by policy makers,
who have developed local projects to continue the work that Vrancea County Council began. Other
problems experienced by Roma communities, such as school enrolment levels, lack of utilities, and
high levels of poverty and unemployment are now recognised by the Romanian public institutions.
The Vrancea County Council has maintained the partnerships that were created during the project
and together they are continuing their efforts in ensuring the social and legal inclusion of the Roma
people.
The Copenhagen City
Honey Cooperative,
Denmark
“The secret of our project has been to connect
the remaining expert beekeepers with dynamic
social projects and committed local businesses.
By finding elegant ways to involve all the social
layers of the city in creating a sustainable urban
honey industry, we aim to create a city that liter-
ally buzzes with life”
www.bybi.dk
An unjust kingdom
After the 2009 Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Oliver Maxwell met an emigrant beekeeper and
began to learn more about the honey industry. Oliver was surprised by the extent of decline in the
bee keeping industry across Europe. Bees can no longer survive without beekeepers. New agricul-
tural methods, exotic bee diseases and climate change, coupled with a decrease in the number of
traditional beekeepers, mean the Danish honey industry is under threat. As imported honey puts
increasing pressure on the remaining locally produced honey, Oliver Maxwell decided to develop a
new generation of city beekeepers.
Social innovation heroes
Global crisis gave Oliver his impetus. The climate crisis and rising unemployment following the
economic crisis in Denmark created an opportunity for Maxwell to create the honey cooperative.
The challenge was to get the right people to meet and work together. Oliver began to spend win-
ter evenings meeting beekeepers and biologists, and learning about bees. He brought together a
group of development workers from housing associations and employment projects, leaders from
businesses and from the municipality who could advise on how to access experts and resources.
They all began to see the benefits of working together to build a cooperative and develop the
honey industry in Denmark.
20 | DG Entreprises & Industry
21. The innovation journey
In the spring of 2009, they agreed on a structure for the cooperative. They planed to start five new bee farms,
each one training 12 new beekeepers, bringing 15 new bee colonies to the city – that means three million
new bees and 60 new beekeepers every year. In addition, they aimed to build a honey factory which would
provide protected jobs in honey treatment, and to market and sell urban honey products to Copenhageners.
The battle
To be successful, the cooperative must have the support of the already established bee keepers.
The project’s social objectives also needed to balance with its financial sustainability.
Beekeepers began to get interested and the project was endorsed by the local and national bee-
keeper associations. With the help of pro bono legal and business support, they created a successful
business model which became a template for other Danish social enterprises. Key businesses offered
their roof spaces and grounds for beekeeping.
In August 2010, the project was formally launched. 30 beekeepers and development workers
came together to join the association. The five main Association partners -Sydhavns Compag-
niet, Kofoeds Skole, Aktivitetscenter Sundholm, Copenhagen municipality, Områdesekretariatet
Tingbjerg and Områdefornyelse Husum –are strongly committed and enthusiastic and provide
financial and political support, as well as resources and know how.
The way back home
“The Copenhagen City Honey Cooperative” will launch five projects in January 2011 which will
provide training and employment to 60 individuals who will become Denmark’s first new generation
of beekeepers. The participants are identified by key partners that are already running social projects.
Funding applications and business plans have been written and approved.
By reigniting consumers interested in traditional high quality Danish honey, Oliver Maxwell both
helped save Denmark’s honey industry, contributed to the wider Danish economy, creating employ-
ment opportunities for immigrants to Denmark who were struggling to access the mainstream labour
market, and stimulated a new way for Danish people to live in a greener city, full of flowers, insects,
vegetables and higher quality of life for its inhabitants.
The Dreams Academy, Turkey
“They ask if the blind can dream. Yes they do. It’s those without dreams who are getting blind. In this fast flow it
is our collective blindness not the individual lack of sight that we hesitate naming”
www.duslerakademisi.org
An unjust kingdom
In Turkey, people with disabilities are the invisible minority. The 8.5 million people with a disability
| 21
22. in Turkey face social, cultural and architectural barriers that prevent them
from participating in society – that means 15% of the population are
excluded. For people with disabilities, the journey to break free of the
social constructs and obstacles that perpetuate the “disability problem”
in Turkey is ongoing.
Social innovation heroes
Ercan Tutal, a scuba instructor, was studying languages in Germany. Through
his studies, he learnt about social services in Germany. He saw the range of
opportunities available and degree of inclusion of people with disabilities and
became acutely aware of the gap that existed between the level of participation and inclusion
of people with disabilities in German society and his home country, Turkey. If people with a disability could
play a role in society in Germany, why could they not in Turkey?
The innovation journey
Ercan used his love of the sea to demonstrate that an Alternative World, free of barriers for people with
disabilities, was possible. Since 1998, Ercan and his students have taken around 2000 people with dis-
abilities to discover diving through the project “Diving is Freedom”. The barriers that usually separated
people with and without disabilities did not exist under water.
The battle
Unfortunately, not everyone shared his belief
that an Alternative World, free of barriers for
people with disabilities, was possible. Many
of the challenges Ercan faced were structural
obstacles that impeded and resisted innovation
in Turkey. Others challenged his ideas. So, Ercan
tried something else. His “alternative” vision
led him to set up “Alternative Camp” in 2002
- widening the sports choices available to
people with disabilities beyond diving. Al-
ternative Camp realises the dream of “sports
for all” - bridging the gap among different
abilities, ages, sexes, cultures and languages
through the medium of sports. Over 7,000
people with disabilities from 250 local and
global organizations and 1,000 volunteers
from around the world have taken part.
Alternative Camp has now been replicated
across Turkey and has become a self-sustaining
innovative agent of social change.
The vision of Alternative Camp has been
embodied in the Alternative Life Association
22 | DG Entreprises & Industry
23. (AYDER). AYDER has produced alternative, innovative and self-sustaining projects. Dreams Academy
is the latest in a series of projects that provide “alternative” solutions for active involvement of people
with disabilities in society. The latest Dreams academy project – the Social Inclusion Band - encour-
ages “Arts & Music for All”.
The way back home
Dreams Academy is the main provider of a continuous program of multidisciplinary activities (sports,
painting, arts, and so on) for disabled people in Turkey – 70% of people with a disability in Turkey have
been supported by Dreams Academy. Moreover, Dreams Academy activities are also having a political
impact, influencing legislation around employment, education, sports and tourism. Dreams Academy
is currently preparing “10 basic principles of barrier free life Turkey” - a declaration to be signed by
public and private sector organizations as a commitment to the integration of disabled people.
The journey goes on. The Dream for an Alternative world will continue as long as there are dreamers.
Aconchego Program,
Portugal
“Company for those who need, house for those
who study... knowledge and social cohesion in
an exchange of boundless affection between two
generations in the construction of life projects with
mutual sense”
An unjust kingdom
Oporto, a small city in the North of Portugal, is simultaneously both very young and very old. Its
university and higher education institutions attract about 70,000 students each year – a significant
proportion of which come from the surroundings of the city or abroad. Every year, many students are
in need of temporary accommodation during the academic year. On the other hand, Oporto has one
of the largest ageing populations in Portugal. Many of these older people suffer from loneliness and
isolation, especially in the downtown area of the city.
Social innovation heroes
In order to tackle these challenges, two institutions - Porto Social Foundation and Academic
Federation of Porto – joined each other in 2004 to set up the Aconchego Program, a housing
programme which matches older people who live on their own with students who are in need of
accommodation.
Porto Social Foundation supports the city council in developing initiatives to improve the quality of life
and the participation of the citizens. The Academic Federation of Porto supports students throughout
their university life in many areas including finding accommodation, organising events, and sharing
relevant information.
| 23
24. The innovation journey
Aconchego Program is based on an intergenerational perspective. Seniors provide housing to
university students in their homes and the students, while sharing their home with seniors, help
them to overcome loneliness and isolation, improving the welfare of seniors and their families.
Students and the older people are
interviewed by both organizations
at the beginning of the matching
process - key elements such as
expectations, interests and past
history of both parties are assessed.
Location and house size are also taken
into account in the matching process.
Monitoring is an important part of
the partnership - a technical and
experienced team conduct regular
home visits and telephone calls.
The battle
The initial phase of integration is crucial for the success of the partnership and the matching process
is constantly being refined.
One of the main challenges in developing Aconchego Program is to achieve better matching between
the senior and the student. Most of the integrations succeed and failure is often only encountered in
the initial moments. The matching process is therefore vital to the programme’s success and refining
this process has been difficult.
The Aconchego Program’s success has also been one of its challenges. Great media coverage has
increased demand for the programme from both seniors and students – balancing this demand has
become increasingly difficult as the number of students in need of accommodation exceeds available
homes.
The way back home
From being an unpopular and unusual idea at its inception, the Aconchego Program has gained its
own dynamic. As more and more countries run similar models in cities all over the world, matching
students and older people has become a more accepted way to combat isolation of ageing popula-
tions and a lack of accommodation for students. Between 2004 and 2008, the demand came mainly
from students but since 2008 the demand from seniors increased significantly. The reversal of the
group’s demand might be related with the relational nature of the programme, where trust and secu-
rity are key elements. The programme also now attracts more middle and upper class old people, and
lower class students for whom close relationships and ties of affection can be places of safety.
The Aconchego Program has already been replicated in Lisbon and in Coimbra.
24 | DG Entreprises & Industry
25. The Digital Pioneers
Fund & Academy,
Netherlands
“The Digital Pioneers fund was created to help
those who are finding it difficult starting a non
profit organization from scratch”
www.digitalepioniers.nl
An Unjust Kingdom.
Sustainability, social cohesion, education, health care,
culture and the arts have all been transformed since
the digital revolution – with the help of social media,
they can all be approached in new ways. The internet
offers enormous potential for empowering civil soci-
ety organisations and ad-hoc groups of citizens inter-
ested in influencing and shaping the society around
them to work together to tackle problems related to
these issues bottom-up. However, starting a social
non-profit from scratch might be difficult...
Social Innovation Heroes
Working with others to start a non profit organisation which can tackle some of society’s biggest
issues today can be a challenge without any money to get going, so the independent think thank
Knowledgeland worked with the Ministries of Education, Culture and Science to make a small-scale
fund available to civil society Internet projects. In order not to put off people, like other funds, the
application procedure for the “Digital Pioneers” fund attempts to be as accessible as possible and
the turn-around time from submitting a proposal to receiving the first 80% of the grant sum is just six
weeks. There are also very few formal prerequisites for getting support from the Digital Pioneers fund.
The lack of formal requirements is compensated by close and intensive contact between the digital
pioneers team at Knowledgeland and the applicants.
The Innovation Journey
Over the last 8 years the digital pioneers fund has supported more than 175 projects (many of them
run by people or organisations who had never submitted a funding application before). The projects
that have been supported with amounts between €5,000 and €32,000 cover a wide range of topics
(from distributed noise pollution measurement networks, to online libraries for children with severe
learning difficulties to online communities for migrants, and everything in-between and approaches
(some have built software for others to re-use, some have produced content to highlight specific so-
cial issues while others have provided platforms to organize social participation and inclusion). More
than 80% of these projects have been successful and together they generate more than 2 million
visits per month.
| 25
26. The Battle
For a lot of these projects, the Digital Pioneers fund has
provided the incentive to realize their ideas and transform
them into projects that would have otherwise remained
just as an idea. Over the years, we have recognized that
sustainability is the most important challenge for a
number of these projects. So, in order to help the ini-
tiatives develop into sustainable projects, Kennisland has
set up the Digital Pioneers Academy, an intensive
four-month course that helps these initiatives to devel-
op a business plan to make them sustainable without project funding. Since 2007 more than 50 projects
have successfully graduated from the Digital Pioneers Academy. Most of these projects are still up and
running as independent organisations.
The Way Back Home
In December 2010 the Digital Pioneers fund (after 18 rounds) will come to an end. While the internet still
offers enormous potential for civil society initiatives to contribute to society, Kennisland also recog-
nize that it is time to apply more focus on what kind of initiatives to support and nurture. In the last
two years we have tailored our approach to initiatives working in the field of e-participation and open
government and we are currently examining how to use the digital pioneers approach to strengthen
the emerging field of citizen journalism.
Siel Bleu, France
“Improved technology and altered circumstances have added
years to our lives. SIEL Bleu’s vision is to ensure that these years
are spent full of life”
www.sielbleu.org
An unjust kingdom
By 2025 the over 65 population will have almost doubled. This unprecedented shift towards ageing
populations has highlighted a systemic failure of the healthcare system and a critical shortage of elder-
care and prevention programmes. Despite a wealth of evidence showing that physical activity can help
reduce the risk of diseases and injuries and that it is more cost effective than curative treatment, health
and cost benefits of preventive action are currently underestimated.
Yet, the injuries or diseases faced by older people are still seen as accidents and not the unavoidable
acts of fate they are often presented as. Through research and showing the impact of its activities,
Siel Bleu tries to make stakeholders and the society aware that injuries and other diseases are predict-
able and preventable. By integrating older people into group sessions of physical activity, Siel Bleu
empowers them to become active participants in society, offering social links, physical autonomy, self
confidence and an incentive for active behaviour.
26 | DG Entreprises & Industry
27. Social innovation heroes
Jean Michel Ricard met Siel Bleu’s co-founder, Jean-Daniel Muller, during university. Together, they
did an internship at an association providing home care services, giving physical exercise classes
to the elderly. When they saw the joy and benefits they were able to bring to these people thanks
to physical activity, they found their inspiration for Siel Bleu, which they founded as a non
profit organization in 1997 after they graduated. Since then, Siel Bleu has offered fitness training
programmes to elderly people in France, helping them to maintain the ability to function independently,
improving endurance, resistance, flexibility and balance abilities and retaining their social con-
nections.
The innovation journey
As well as developing and running an array of physical activity programmes dedicated to older people,
Siel Bleu also helps raise awareness of exercise and curative treatments for older people by building
strong partnerships with French government authorities and ministries such as the departments of
health, elderly people and sport. Siel Bleu also conducts research about the impact of physical activity
in preventing diseases and works in partnership with research institutes (INSERM), the European
Commission and other European governments, such as Irish and Cataluña governments.
The battle
Siel Blue has already been replicated in Ireland
and Belgium, but its main challenge now is to
expand all over Europe, building a network
of physical activity stakeholders who can
deliver Siel Bleu’s preventive programmes, in
compliance with their high quality standards.
Ensuring quality assurance during the expansion
process will be the biggest battle in their expansion.
To help manage this, Siel Bleu will launch a training
and research institute to support the creation and dissemination of its programmes contents.
The way back home
In 2009, Siel Bleu offered more than 105,000 interventions of physical activity, helping more than 60,000
weekly service users. Since its launch in 1997, Siel Bleu has grown to employ more than 250 staff
(160 full time staff ). As the ageing populations around the world increase, and with ambitions making
the Siel Bleu’s services available on a global scale, co-founders Jean Michel Ricard and Jean-Daniel Muller
are just at the beginning of their journey.
| 27
28. What’s next?
What’s next for social innovation?
This initiative has shown that Europe is rich in social innovations – from raising educational standards
in Germany through empowering parents in disadvantaged communities, to helping secure legal
identity for thousands in Roma communities. It is also clear that Europe has a wealth of creative
people who drive social innovations –from a scuba instructor in Turkey who is putting disability on
the political agenda to the co founders of Siel Bleu, whose university internship was the inspiration for
an organization that now runs in 3 European countries.
However, despite social innovation providing the opportunity for Europe to deal with societal challenges
like climate change, energy and food security, health and an ageing population, this initiative has
shown that social innovation must be further nurtured and supported in order for it to create an
impact beyond the established social innovation community. This is why we are delighted with the
recently published innovation strategy for the European Union, “Innovation Union”, includes a strong
commitment to promoting social innovation in the coming years. We believe this commitment should
support innovators on 3 levels:
Support for individual innovations and innovators
Firstly, support is needed for the individual projects and innovators. The champions for change who
submitted their projects to “This is European Social Innovation” are only a small number of the innova-
tors in Europe and their peers are hard to reach. Stronger social innovation networks will not only help
social innovators to identify themselves as such, they will enable innovators to connect into a mutually
supportive community where they can learn from and share with their peers.
A European social innovation community would not only enable currently disparate individuals to
create a common language and establish, share and disseminate best practice and new models.
It would also build capacity. A lack of training and capacity for social innovators is often outlined
as a barrier for social innovations to grow. A strong community would help those involved in social
innovation share skills and resources, transforming the currently weak and fragmented capacity which
constrains effective innovations from flourishing and growing.
Creating an environment for social innovation to flourish
Secondly, we need to create enabling conditions for social innovations to thrive. Many of the
submissions for this initiative identify the need for funding that is better suited to social innovation.
This means increased availability of reliable funding sources which are bureaucratically light, and
are available at every stage of the innovation process – from conceptualizing, testing, and assessing
to scaling potential solutions. European funding is currently one of the largest sources of income for
early stage projects, so large institutions must also create a safe space for innovation. Finance must be
available for proof of concept testing and prototyping, and the associated risks must be managed.
28 | DG Entreprises & Industry
29. In addition, the political climate must be supportive at every level, not only through policies and
favourable commissioning. In fact, it was political support from influential individuals and institutions
that was highlighted as a key factor behind the success of many of the projects that were submitted as
part of this initiative.
Showcasing best practice though stories and rich case studies
Widespread adoption of social innovation will not happen without support from government, business,
civil society organisations, and citizens across Europe. And that won’t happen without social innovations
being visible. A better understanding of social innovation across all actors in Europe will be best achieved
through showcasing concrete examples of social innovation projects, in various forms and forums. We
need to raise awareness of a social innovation approach in order for actors from different sectors to
engage with each other productively, without scepticism, and fear of competition. We need to raise the
profile of social innovation in Europe and we hope “This is European Social Innovation” has begun to
encourage more people to capitalise on the value of social innovation to create a better Europe.
What’s next for our selected projects?
The 10 selected projects will now be invited to a workshop at the Social Innovation Park in Bilbao, cited
by some as the world’s first Social Silicon Valley. The Social Innovation Park is a vibrant and unique
industrial park for social businesses, NGOs and co-operatives committed to tackling social problems
in Bilbao. The goal of the workshop is to identify ways and means to scale up and/or replicate the 10
flagship initiatives working in collaboration with the other winners, partners and potential investors.
The participants will also design a process of permanent collaboration to identify new large scale
opportunities.
Thanks to everyone who shared their inspiring stories
| 29
31. How to obtain EU publications
Publications for sale:
• via EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu);
• from your bookseller by quoting the title, publisher and/or ISBN number;
• by contacting one of our sales agents directly. You can obtain their contact details on the
Internet (http://bookshop.europa.eu) or by sending a fax to +352 2929-42758.
Free publications:
• via EU bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu);
• at the European Commission’s representations or delegations. You can obtain their contact
details on the internet http://ec.europa.eu or by sending a fax to +352 2929-42758.
Acknowledgements
The ‘This is European Social Innovation’ initiative would like to acknowledge the contributions of Elizabeth Ashford
(Projects and Communications Assistant, Euclid Network), and Ines Mena (Intern, SIX) for their invaluable role in
putting this altogether. Many thanks also to the Social Innovation Park, Bilbao for hosting the workshop for the se-
lected projects, and Peter Dröll, DG Enterprise, European Commission, for his support of this initiative throughout.
We would also like to acknowledge the Young Foundation for its strategic advice and insights.
"This is European Social Innovation" is deeply grateful to everyone who took part by submitting their inspiring
stories. With over 100 entries, the creativity and diversity of the entries was most impressive and the jury found
it very difficult to only select 10 stories to be showcased in this booklet. As the challenges we face in society
increase, creativity and social innovation will become more and more important for a prosperous Europe. We hope
all of these stories will provide inspiration to many more people across Europe to form new partnerships, and
work together to transform their communities. Congratulations to all of you!
32. NB-31-10-615-EN-C
Quotes from the Jury
“ We need people, institutions and governments to innovate, to find new ways of solving today’s’ social problems.
And we have to support those that are trying. We must highlight their work, help them with funds, and offer our
networks to them. They, the social innovators, are the key actors for social development and by supporting them
we will be contributing to building up a better world.”
Rosa Gallego, Associacion Espanola de Fundaciones and DAFNE
“The breadth, depth and potential of the projects is just unbelievable and breathtaking.”
Simona Paravani, HSBC Global Asset Management
“I want to thank all those who make Europe more human and to encourage all those - including me - who want
to do something similar”
Peter Dröll, European Commission
“Europe has great traditions of social innovation - but in recent years innovation has often been talked about as if
it’s only for scientists and technologists. This initiative was designed to showcase a selection of current examples of
radical innovation taking place below the radar across Europe - to help people understand what social innovation
is and why it matters so much to a continent facing urgent challenges of ageing, jobs and climate change.”
Geoff Mulgan, The Young Foundation
“Being part of this jury has been an inspiring experience that left me with several new ideas that were sparked as
I read all the entries. It has made me even more convinced that there is huge need for similar initiatives like this
one. Helping us learn from successes of others should be supported more, rather than investing in re-inventing the
wheel. Helping others to replicate and scale existing innovations will bring benefit to us all, creating wide spread
social change.”
Ewa Konczal, Ashoka Poland
“Innovation and social: two essential words to highlight that the progress also comes from organizations which placed
the human being as ‘ actor of their development. What is happening in Europe in order to provide Social Innovation is
of an incredible wealth, we have received so many high quality projects that it’s wasn’t easy to retain only 10”
Alain Coheur, Social Economy Europe
“Disruptive change - and Europe is getting a lot of that- is sometimes the source for innovation. If you have little
money you are forced to think differently. That is why Europe’s civil society is so great at social innovation. “
Stephen Bubb, ACEVO and Social Investment Business
“This initiative has shown just how rich Europe is in social innovations. It shows the imagination and potential of
Europe to tackle some of today’s biggest societal challenges. SIX will continue to work with its partners in Europe,
and throughout the rest of the world, to ensure the concept of innovation includes social innovation and that it
is recognised at the highest political levels – just as it is in Europe’s Innovation Union . Thank you to everyone in
Europe who is playing their part to make Europe truly innovative.”
Diogo Vasconcelos, Cisco and SIX Chair
J766
32 | DG Entreprises & Industry