This report examines the policy measures the European Commission has taken to promote social innovation since 2009. A key approach taken by the Commission has been to support Member State governments to promote social innovation as a matter of public policy. In this report we look specifically at welfare reform (Chapter 3), cohesion policy and the structural funds (Chapter 4) and measures to promote public sector innovation (Chapter 5). In particular, we examine the EU’s ‘Social Investment Package’, adopted in 2013 to provide policy support to member states to help them adopt preventative strategies to prevent social breakdown. The Commission is now closely monitoring the performance of individual Member States’ social protection strategies, and assisting by making country specific recommendations. It also examines the PROGRESS axis of the Commission’s Programme for Employment and Social Innovation, which was in its previous iteration effective at highlighting issues and galvanizing co-ordinated action. It is hoped that by managing it together with other programmes to promote job mobility and access to micro-finance, it will have greater impact in the fight against poverty and social exclusion.
Another approach to social innovation adopted by the European Commission has been to support on the ground social innovators to scale, and assist in creating a favourable climate for social entrepreneurs. This has taken the form of establishing networks of incubators throughout Europe through the BENISI and Transition programmes (Chapter 6), and also the promotion of social entrepreneurship through the Social Business Initiative (Chapter 7). Transition and BENISI have been successful as they have used existing infrastructure while integrating research and practice, although they could benefit from increased funding as they have had to use modified understandings of scaling. The Social Business Initiative has also been effective at putting social entrepreneurship high on the European agenda, and has achieved some promising changes to the legal and regulatory environment. However, these changes will have little impact if they are not promoted and implemented within the member states themselves, and for this reason more needs to be done to build on this promising start.
In addition to the work directed at forming networks of incubators, the European Commission has put resources into developing larger communities of social innovators through the Social Innovation Europe consortium and the European Innovation Partnerships (Chapter 8). Social Innovation Europe has been successful at providing an online hub for social innovators, as well as hosting several offline events. In the future, however, resources should be invested into ensuring better engagement across different regions of the EU. Similarly, the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Aging, which we explore in detail, would benefit from engaging with a wider group of stakeholders.
Yet another step that the Commission has taken to promote social innovation to a wider audience has been to promote social innovation competitions (Chapter 9). In this chapter, we highlight the European Social Innovation Competition and the Regiostars initiative. These have provided opportunities for people to meet and showcase projects, as well as promote the concept of social innovation more widely. The URBACT programme has also given cities the space and opportunity to innovate and share best practice between each other.
Lastly, the European Commission has recognized the promise inherent in digital social innovation, and as such has invested money into research projects which will explore its potential (Chapter 10). These include highly experimental projects such as the CAPS (Collective Awareness Platforms) initiative. In terms of the European Commission’s research into social innovation more broadly, this has been wide ranging and comprehensive (Chapter 11). The authors recommend that more be done to ensure that work directly tackles policy challenges, and that relevant stakeholders are involved from the start. Finally, stronger links could be made between research, policy and practice. This report seeks to begin linking research with practice to further understand the European Union’s policies to promote social innovation and the opportunities and levers for improvement [Extracted from the Executive Summary].
Simon, Julie, Schon, Rachel and Hannah Kitcher [et al.] 2014) Growing the field of social innovation in Europe. A deliverable of the project: “The theoretical, empirical and policy foundations for building social innovation in Europe” (TEPSIE), European Commission – 7th Framework Programme, Brussels: European Commission, DG Research.
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