About SI-DRIVE

On 24^th and 25^th October 2017, the Final Conference of SI-DRIVE was held successfully in Brussels, Belgium: “Social Innovation – Research and Policy of the Future: towards a comprehensive innovation policy” brought together over 250 practitioners, researchers and policy makers from 44 countries in the field of social innovation and policy.

Speakers underlined that the different and increasingly sound concepts of social innovation enable researchers to better understand the field in all its complexity. With SI-DRIVE’s global and comprehensive mapping of socially innovative cases as a starting point, presenters and panelists challenged the community to take the next steps to deepen its knowledge on social innovation along the dimensions of policy fields, societal sectors and world regions. [Read more]

One of the central outputs of the SI-DRIVE project, the SI-DRIVE Policy Declaration sets a framework for unfolding the potential of social innovations within a new innovation paradigm and a new innovation policy. It’s about fostering democracy and participation, economy, digital and ecological transformation. And it’s about the capacity of social innovation to enable social change – through new governance approaches and a better understanding and design of the eco-systems in which social innovations develop.
Fortunately, the Policy Declaration could be presented to the EU-Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, during the EU-Conference “Opening up to an Era of Social Innovation” between the 27^th and 28^th November 2017 in Lisbon. SI-DRIVE was one of the projects which were showcased at an accompanying exhibition. [Read more]

In 2015, the 25 SI-DRIVE project partners, social innovators (practitioners) and invited institutions funding or supporting social innovation, mapped 1.005 cases in seven policy fields on all five continents. The information was collected in a database and used for further investigations, like the Comparative Analysis and in-depth case studies. Besides, most central aspects of the 1.005 cases, such as short descriptions, information on which countries the project operates in, involved actors, etc. are provided in an interactive map, which is available here.
Moreover, the global mapping results will be presented in an "Atlas of Social Innovation - New Practices for a Better Future". From January 2018, the atlas will be available as printed publication as well as by using this link: www.socialinnovationatlas.net

After four successful years, the SI-DRIVE project will be closed at the end of the year 2017. A review on the most important highlights of the four year lasting project with 16 European and 9 non-European partners is available here. A lot of outcomes, which have been achieved, will be utilised and further developed in other projects and initiatives, focusing on social innovation. One central "social innovation lynch pin" is Social Innovation Community (SIC), a Horizon 2020 funded project, which develops an enabling environment for social innovation by linking actions across the whole field and supporting the full exploitation of their potential in terms of addressing societal challenges in Europe and beyond. In addition, the European School of Social Innovation (ESSI) and the European Public & Social Innovation Review (EPSIR) – institutionalised social innovation networks and communities in themselves – will enlarge the SI-DRIVE results.

The SI-DRIVE consortium wishes you all the best for the Holiday Season, says thank you and good bye!

You might be interested in the presentations and materials of the Final Conference, the interactive map showing the 1.005 cases and upcoming information on the "Atlas of Social Innovation".

www.si-drive.eu