Author: Sophie Monaghan-Coombs

SIKE event in Lisbon debates the resources and needs of Portuguese social innovation ecosystem with local stakeholders.

The event was organized by Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa and took place at  Casa do Impacto, a recent hub for social innovation created by this secular wide-ranging Portuguese charity.

More than 500 years after its foundation, Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa pursues its original mission to improve the quality of life of the individuals and communities, particularly those underprivileged and vulnerable, and continues to seek new and more appropriate solutions to current social needs and challenges.

Gathering all the major Portuguese stakeholders of the social innovation field, Casa do Impacto aims to support the generation and grown of startups and entrepreneurship projects with social impact, therefore contributing to a greater promotion and visibility of the social innovation ecosystem.

The event took place in the October 2018 and host several local stakeholders such as researchers, academics, entrepreneurs, public entities, corporations and non-profit organizations.

In the first part of the event, the SIKE partners, Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa and Universidade de Aveiro, explained the goals and methodology applied in the SIKE project. The Refood movement was also presented as a best practice identified by the Portuguese partners. It is an independent non-profit organization born in Lisbon that presents a new response to long standing challenges – an innovative tool to eliminate food waste and hunger in local communities while steadily strengthening social bonds. It strives to provide good rescued food to those in need and prevent food waste in local communities by inspiring and mobilizing the community itself.

The second part of the event started out with an overview about the state of art of the social innovation ecosystems presented by the SIKE team of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa. The extended miss concepts and the diversity of conceptual meanings about social innovation were pointed out, as taking matter in the evaluation of the impact and scale of initiatives and projects. A debate took place in the final part of the event, revealing the variety of knowledges and experiences of the local stakeholders concerning the resources and needs required for the development of social innovation and social entrepreneurship initiatives.

The demand for a better conceptual accuracy in the development of scientific knowledge was pointed out, which premises a need to increase the involvement of the academics in the social innovation process. In the other way, more than the insufficiency of resources, there’s a need to better articulate the resources and instruments already operating in the field in order to create synergies that allow the recognition and consolidation of the social innovation ecosystem.

Presentation and debate event about the project and current state of Social Innovation in Portugal brings together local actors, institutions, city councils, and entrepreneurs.

On October 3rd, a meeting was held to present the SIKE (Social Innovation through Knowledge Exchange) European project and debate on the current state and difficulties of the development of Social Innovation at a national and specifically in the Aveiro region. This event aimed to strengthen relations between the Academy and the surrounding community, to understand their needs and obstacles, and to understand how the University can offer knowledge and resources to institutions and social entrepreneurs.

At the beginning of the session there was a presentation by the professors and their departments involved in the project: Prof. Gonçalo Gomes, ID + Desis Lab, Department of Communication and Art (coordinator os the project at University of Aveiro), Prof. José Carlos Mota, GOVCOPP, Social and Political Sciences and Territory, and Professor Marta Ferreira Dias and Professor Marlene Amorim of REMSI, Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism. A brief presentation of the other national partner involved in the project took place, in addition to the University of Aveiro: the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, represented by Gustavo Freitas.

Subsequently, the project itself was presented, its objectives, its involvement and its relevance This was intended to clarify to the participants, local actors with impact in the region, how could the project and the future SIKE unit help the development of projects and initiatives of this scope.

With the presentations made, there was room for debate among all the thirty participants, in which they were able to share their experiences and points of view on some pertinent themes and difficulties that they encountered along its route. The topics covered during the session were to meet some of the questions present in the needs survey developed within the scope of the project, which aims to understand the needs and difficulties of these local actors, institutions, city councils and entrepreneurs in their development and what can the University do to help. The debate proved to be an enriching and interesting moment, in which the results exceeded the objectives of the project and provided a closer relationship between the various actors in the region.

The forging of alliances within the social innovation ecosystem has begun with the UK’s SIKE partners’ Movement Makers “Learn, Connect, Do” event, organised by The Melting Pot and hosted by Glasgow Caledonian University.

The event enabled over 100 people to explore models, motivations, and aspirations for social innovation. Josh Littlejohn, co-founder of Social Bite, featured as keynote speaker, followed by breakout sessions and a panel consisting of academics and practitioners from the social, environmental, and health and wellbeing sectors. This broad intersection of representation, united around similar values and concerns, enabling us to discuss both challenges and potential solutions for Scotland’s most pressing problems.

Mark Anderson, Director of The Europe Office at Glasgow Caledonian University, was the host and MC of Movement Makers. “Social innovators need to understand the support universities can give them,” Anderson stated. “Universities are traditionally where knowledge is created. Innovation is about giving knowledge value: social innovation is about giving that knowledge social value.”

To read more about the event, visit this website.