Growing a Transnational Smart Community of Social Innovators for the Inclusive Development of Central Europe

Social innovation initiatives can create products, services and models that answer to structural transformations of civic communities – but they are still fragile and unevenly diffused in central Europe. The Social(i)Makers project aims to improve social innovation capacities by working with financiers, entrepreneurs, policy makers and citizens on how to generate new lively ecosystems as a bottom-up result of their interactions. The project will establish a transnational 2-phase educational programme 'Social(i)Makers Launchpad' to train and connect Social(i)makers through a central Europe-wide learning and innovation community.

The unique educational package developed by the project will involve partner regions as well as other central European regions facing social challenges. The project will train various actors to design and launch effective and sustainable social innovation initiatives via the 'Social Innovation Design Academy' and learn to engage the right stakeholders and shareholders, by exploiting a pocket 'Social Innovation Design Toolbox'. Practitioners will put the acquired skills into practice through the 'Social Innovation Skyrocket Lab', which will coordinate them in the organization of local and transnational pilot SI initiatives for Central Europe through the co-working 'On-line Social Innovation Skyrocket Platform'. In doing so, the project will trigger the emergence of a transnational Social(i)Makers Community in CE which will be further developed by a long-term SI capacity-building strategy defined ad hoc.

Consequently, project will provide a complex concept and programme for social innovation actors to replace diffuse change-making initiatives currently available in this sector in central Europe.