National Competence Centre for Social Innovation

In 2020 the European Commission published a call for proposals for projects building up national competence centres for social innovation. The call aimed at supporting the early phase of developing and testing the key functions of the national competence centres for social innovation (NCCs), with the perspective that in longer term their national operations could be financed for example from the national ESF+ Programmes. The suggested key functions encompassed:

• capacity building of stakeholders, including the ESF+ Managing Authorities in charge of the dedicated priorities on social innovation;
• transnational transfer of knowledge;
• creation of synergies between the strands of ESF+ and other relevant EU funding programmes;
• networking of stakeholders, both in the national and the EU context.

Subsequently, six projects, presented by transnational consortia involving 148 organisations, were selected, and the winners later worked on building NCCs in 23 Member States and in the UK/Scotland.

• Each consortium included partners from four or five countries and organises mutual learning activities between them, thus helping to identify the NCC’s functions suitable and effective in facilitating the development of social innovation in the country in question.
• The consortia also exchanged the lessons learnt and work together within the Community of Practice on Social Innovation, which is a platform dedicated to mutual learning across the wider EU social innovation community.

As part of these projects, the consortia have investigated national ecosystems for social innovation with the ambition to create a joint strategy and an action plan for each country. This included identification of strengths, opportunities, and constrains, as well as mapping of the most important stakeholders (project promoters, funders, support organisations) and activities, their expertise and needs for capacity building. These projects triggered important developments in the countries involved. Notably, they have mobilised a substantial number of key players to jointly act and reflect on better support for social innovation in each country. This has happened in parallel with the programming of the ESF+ resources and thereby, most countries now have a more explicit and strategic approach for supporting social innovation.

More information about results of the transnational consortia projects (factsheets):

BuiCaSuS: Building Capacity for a Sustainable Society (Member States: France, Latvia, Spain, Sweden). Results – factsheet (Download)

ESIA: European Social Innovation Alliance (Member States: Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Poland, UK). Results – factsheet (Download)

FUSE: Facilitating United Approaches to Social Innovation in Europe (Member States: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland, Portugal). Results – factsheet (Download)

PEnCIL: Pan-European Social Innovation Lab (Member States: Belgium, Czechia, Finland, Lithuania). Results – factsheet (Download)

SEED: Social innovation EcosystEm Development (Member States: Greece, Italy, Romania, Slovenia). Results – factsheet (Download)

SI PLUS: Social Innovation Plus – Competence Centres (Member States: Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia). Results – factsheet (Download)