2nd Meeting of the Working Group of the Competence Centres for Social Innovation

The second Competence Centres for Social Innovation Working Group on-site event took place on 25 October 2023 in Brussels, Belgium. It welcomed 41 participants from 23 EU Member States, including ESF+ Committee members and National Competence Centres for Social Innovation representatives across all EU Member States. The event was organized within the framework of the Community of Practice (CoP) on Social Innovation of the ESF+ Social Innovation+ Initiative.

The meeting focused on continuing the Theory of Change (ToC) exercise initiated in June during the meeting held in Portugal. It aimed to establish a shared vision and guidance to help future competence centres for social innovation build on the ESF+ Social Innovation priorities. Common objectives could include improving existing public services or supporting social innovation policies to address current and future complex problems collectively.

Participants clarified the core competencies that the new national centres should develop. Among the most important ones are:

• Systemic mapping of the social innovation ecosystem
• Continuous interaction with social innovation ecosystems
• Co-creation
• Scaling within complex systems to have a societal impact

These core competencies must be interpreted differently in each context, and different methodologies need to be used for their development. However, the establishment of a shared knowledge system requires that all Member States work on the same core competencies. With regard to the scaling strategy, participants discussed how to build on previous practical examples (both successful and unsuccessful) of scaling to a regional or national level. They explored the necessary strategies to develop early partnerships with champions within the existing ecosystem and realistic theories of change.

In addition to the core competencies, seminar participants identified several additional cross-cutting competencies:

• Development of an adaptive governance system
• New systems of action research/developmental evaluation
• New approaches to outcome-based financing

During the seminar, participants proposed building a digital environment for the Competence Centres that reinforces the digital tools that have been activated (SIM) so far.

An evaluation of how well-developed these competencies are in each Member State, using a self-assessment tool, could be undertaken as a next step. Subsequently, a learning community could be built among the Competence Centres to acquire or reinforce the competencies where gaps have been identified.

Finally, Commission representatives invited the National Competence Centres on Social Innovation to respond ambitiously to the opportunity to build a new European infrastructure to address complex societal challenges.