On 7th April 2016, a workshop on social innovation took place in Talca, the capital of the Chilean Maule Region. It was organised by the University of Talca in order to give regional governmental institutions a possibility to learn more about this topic. Dmitri Domanski, researcher at TU Dortmund University – sfs, spoke a on a systemic concept of social innovation and presented the results of the global mapping of social innovation initiatives, recently conducted within the research project SI-DRIVE (coordinated by TU Dortmund University – sfs). Further contributions were made by experts from the Inter-American Development Bankand Chile’s National Innovation Council, among others. The visit to Talca was concluded by a presentation for students and lecturers of the Masters Programme “Management of Technologies” at the University of Talca.
Some days later, on 12th April 2016, Dmitri Domanski was invited to the Chilean Ministry of Economy in the national capital Santiago to speak to representatives of Chilean governmental institutions and universities. Again, there was much interest in the results of SI-DRIVE’s global mapping, especially regarding integration of social innovation in innovation policy. Moreover, participants discussed the publication “Social Innovation in Latin America: The Chilean Case”, recently co-authored by Dmitri Domanski and Jürgen Howaldt.
The day after, Dmitri Domanski presented the results of SI-DRIVE’s global mapping at the international conference PRISMA, which was organised by Socialab. Socialab is an internationally operating NGO founded in 2012, which supports social innovators seeking to develop solutions to fight poverty. The conference was also joined by experts from South Africa, Bangladesh and Bulgaria.
On 18th May 2016, a delegation of Chilean university rectors visited TU Dortmund University (TUDO). The delegation consisted of the highest representatives of universities that belong to the council of rectors CRUCH. The guests from Chile showed great interest in the topic of social innovation, regarding current research trends as well as in view of the worldwide increasing importance of social responsibility of universities.
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Howaldt, director of TUDO’s Social Research Centre Dortmund (sfs), and Dmitri Domanski, researcher at sfs, presented the Centre’s work in the field of social innovation. In particular, the focus of the presentation and of the subsequent discussion was placed on the concept of social innovation developed at sfs Dortmund, its main research projects such as SI-DRIVE and its numerous activities in Latin America.
