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SIC UK hosts roundtables at Social Innovation Fair
Social Innovation Connect UK (SIC UK) participated at the Social Innovation Fair, held last 18 - 19 May 2023 at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU). Organised by GCU’s Research and Innovation Office, the Social Innovation Fair was an event that celebrated the work and contributions of various organisations from around the world working within the social innovation ecosystem.
SIC UK set-up a booth which featured its fantasy adventure presented during the final event in Copenhagen last April. It also led two sessions during the conference. The first, held on 18 May, was an overview of the competence centre and its work and achievements by Rose Cawood-Campell. Dovile Pozeckiene from the European Social Fund Agency also presented opportunities for funding and future involvement in the ESF.
On the second day, SIC UK led a roundtable on international innovation and collaboration, facilitated by Mark Majewsky-Anderson, director of GCU RIO. The speakers included Deidre van Rooyen and Adelaide Sheik from the Supporting Youth Social Entrepreneurship in South Africa project, Caroline Wylie from The Challenges Group, and Viviantie Sarjuni from Sabah Creative Economy and Innovation Centre Malaysia. Each of them shared about the work they do in different parts of the world, looking at how socially innovative approaches and methods can respond to growing social issues today.
Some of SIC UK’s partners, The Melting Pot, Scottish Community Development Centre, and Firstport also set-up booths and participated in another roundtable.
SIC UK joins study visit in Copenhagen and presents competence centre achievements
The SIC UK team, represented by Louise Pulford from Social Innovation Exchange, and Zarina San Jose and Rachel Dohain from Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), joined the ESIA study visit in Copenhagen from 19 - 21 April 2023. Hosted by Danish partners, Social Innovation Academy and Danish Design Center, this was the final study visit for the project, after two years of transnational partnerships and work on building national competence centres for social innovation.
The study visit included a seminar on the future of social innovation and visits to projects across the city to explore how social innovation fits into Danish society. One highlight was Christiania, a free town established in Copenhagen in the 1970s on non-conformist ideals, and BloxHub, the Nordic hub for sustainable urbanisation.
The final day also saw the culmination of the ESIA project. It was an occasion for SIC UK to showcase its achievements in developing and implementing a national strategy connecting British stakeholders in social innovation. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit, the centre was able to conduct comprehensive research to better understand the national ecosystem, and organized a range of events that highlighted the importance of social innovation across different sectors, including the Scottish government, and form transnational partnerships.
As part of the project, SI Connect UK participated in study visits to Germany, Estonia, Poland, and Denmark, as well as hosted its own in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh. These trips provided valuable insights into social innovation practices and served as inspiration for the development of its own national strategy.
In presenting its achievements and sharing experiences in establishing as the National Competence Centre for Social Innovation in the UK, Rachel and Zarina took the consortium on a fantasy adventure, recalling each step of the way.
Looking ahead, SIC UK hopes to maintain close ties with the consortium and continue to collaborate with them to share best practices. At the same time, it is keen on continuing its work as a competence centre for social innovation in the UK, through its existing partnerships and forging new ones in the future!
Enprendia visits Scotland
SI Connect UK invited Enprendia consortium members on a study visit to Scotland last 29 - 30 November 2022.
ENPRENDIA is a project funded under the Eramus+ programme, with an objective to enhance entrepreneurial culture among the female population in Indian higher education institutions (HEIs), while promoting gender equality and gender equity. The delegation, coming from HEIs around India, were interested in social innovation ecosystems and women entrepreneurship in Scotland.
The first day at GCU provided the delegates with presentations from The Village Storytelling Centre, WiSE Centre for Economic Justice ,and culminated into two workshops - on Active Citizenship, and a participatory workshop examining EU funding opportunities in Europe.
The second day was split between GCU and a trip to Edinburgh. In the morning participants heard from GCU’s Equality and Diversity adviser and Business Incubator Uhatch. After travelling to Edinburgh, The Melting Pot provided an overview of their activities and a tour of their co-working space. Challenges Worldwide then provided an insight into their projects and activities. The study visit was completed with a walking tour of Edinburgh provided by Invisible Cities.
At all points through the visit participants were encouraged to ask questions and engage with presenters. This allowed for in depth discussions and a productive visit.
European competence centres present in Brussels
Competence Centres for Social Innovation gathered together as part of the Changemakers and Pioneers conference, organised by Glasgow Caledonian University, the UK Competence Centre for Social Innovation (SIC), and hosted at Scotland House in Brussels on 28th October 2022. The session was opened by Michael Grosse from the European Commission (Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) who outlined the original concept for the Centres, but also elaborated upon future initiatives, with opportunities for current consortia to apply for further funding and the establishment of the Europe-wide centre over the next eight years.
Most of the Centres were represented and discussed their achievements and shared their ideas for future collaboration:
Daniel Kruger and Sven Zivanovic represented the competence centre for Germany, part of the European Social Innovation Alliance, discussed the importance of cooperation in social innovation as opposed to competition, bringing together Competence Centres from Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Poland and the UK. They also discussed their mapping approach and highlighted their key observations from a German perspective.
PEnCIL (Pan European Social Innovation Lab) is the consortium of national Social Innovation Competence Centres in Belgium, Czechia, Finland and Lithuania. Tomas De Groote presented and spoke about HUBSI, the Belgian part of the consortium and their focus on mapping of the social innovation ecosystem to allow the creation of a platform.
The BuiCaSuS (Building a Capacity for a Sustainable Society) consortium was represented by Avise the Competence Centre for France. They discussed the BuiCaSuS project’s objectives, mapping methodology, how they support upscaling and share best practise. They also focused on the challenges and favourable conditions in Avise. They concluded with recommendations, which included making better use of existing knowledge to support social innovation and improving public policy to better acknowledge and support social innovation.
Social Innovation Plus (SI Plus) were represented by the Hungarian partner of the consortium, Istvan Tamas Szenttamasi. He spoke about the National and Transnational activities SI Plus had been involved in and spoke specifically about how these are applied in Hungary.
Asta Jurgute represented Europe-wide Social Innovation Centre which is located in Lithuania. Asta discussed their key functions, transnational cooperation, communities of practise activities and their implementation plan.
After the presentations, conference participants were able to ask any of the presenter’s questions about their competence centres. This allowed for a very open and fruitful discussion.
