Eötvös Loránd University is a selected beneficary of an Austrian-led consortium which has been awarded more than €1.6 million by European Social Fund (ESF). The ESF supports national social innovation competence centres in five European countries. The University’s participation in the working group is ensured by experts from the ELTE Innovation Centre from July 2024.
The European Social Fund Plus (ESF Plus) is one of the drivers of social innovation in Europe. The Social Innovation Plus (SI Plus) programme aims to build and develop the professional capacity of social innovation involving all stakeholders (public sector, academic community, civil society institutions, as well as private companies and social enterprises etc.) in a country. National and transnational synergies and networks will help to spread the concept of social innovation and lay the foundations for future activities.
The newly formed consortium is composed by different institutions in Austria, Latvia, Hungary, Malta and Slovakia. Social innovation is already a high priority in the participating countries, and the partners contribute to the success of the project with their diverse institutional and professional backgrounds. The SI Plus programme builds directly on the work of the National Competence Centres and the results of this transnational consortia.
The tasks of the National Competence Centre in Hungary were previously performed by the Hungarian Economic Development Agency Non-Profit Ltd. (former IFKA Közhasznú Nonprofit Kft.). The National Laboratory for Social Innovation (TINLAB) led by Eötvös Loránd University has been working on the development of social innovation since 2020, therefore provides a solid professional background in the sector.
The consortium will focus on the following activities over the next three years:
- supporting social innovators to respond societal challenges relevant in the domestic context;
- international knowledge sharing and transfer, and scaling up with expert support;
- ecosystem mapping and visualisation, supporting evidence-based policy making, sharing good practices;
- curriculum development;
- contributing to the development of national strategies and action plans, developing the concept of sustainability for competence centres and providing expert guidance for social innovation initiatives.
Partners:
- L&R Social Research GmbH, Austria, is the consortium leader of the project:
- Ministerstvo práce, sociálnych vecí a rodiny Slovenskej republiky (Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family /MPSVR SR/), Slovakia
- Ministry responsible for European Funds (Ministry responsible for European Funds /PPCD, MEFL/), Malta
- Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE – TINLAB), Hungary
- Sabiedribas Integracijas Fonds (Social Integration Foundation /SIF/), Latvia
- Latvijas Sociālās uzņēmējdarbī bas asociācija (Association of Social Enterprises /SUA/) Latvia
- Labklajibas Ministrija (Ministry of Welfare /MoW/), Latvia
- Zentrum für Soziale Innovation GmbH (Centre for Social Innovation /ZSI/), Austria