Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI)

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Organization Type:

Scientific institute

Mandate:

The Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) is a scientific institute. It was registered as an association in 1988 and has been operational since 1990. On 1 July 2014, it was converted into a non-profit limited company. It focuses on promoting social development and is recognised as a non-profit organisation by the Austrian tax authorities. The ZSI Association has been retained and is the owner of the non-profit ZSI GmbH.

Key Initiatives & Programs:

Under the motto “All innovations are socially relevant”, ZSI examines the social embedding and impact of all types of innovation and contributes to the design and diffusion of socially acceptable and sustainable innovations to overcome global challenges.

Website:

www.zsi.at

Contact:

institut@zsi.at

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Social Innovation: Inspirational Practices Supporting People Throughout their Lives

The brochure ‘Social Innovation: inspirational practices supporting people throughout their lives’ presents 27 examples of social innovation initiatives across the European Union, one from each Member State. It highlights the diversity and success of social innovations in Europe, showcasing initiatives that facilitate transitions, integrate disadvantaged groups, redesign business models, empower people, build partnerships and deliver public policies, in new and creative ways. Innovators include NGOs, social enterprises, local, regional and national authorities, social partners and the private sector, often working in partnership to improve people’s lives. The brochure aims to raise awareness of the significant positive impact that such innovations can have on people and communities. Its goal is to inform Member States, organisations and other actors about existing good practices on social innovation, facilitating learning exchange and transnational cooperation, particularly in the context of the future European Social Fund Plus.

social innovation-KE0320672ENNDownload

Source: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/e33b37ad-3b60-11eb-b27b-01aa75ed71a1/language-en

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SI-Mission-Facility kick-off meeting happening in Vienna

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Hosted by ZSI, the project partners meet in Vienna on July 3-4 to jointly start the first activities of the SIMF. Whereas the first day focusses on the project-internal administration, distribution of roles and responsibilities for each partner, the second day already marks the first public event of our project. We will gather social innovation stakeholders for a half-day launch event at Impact Hub Vienna to introduce the rationale, objectives and initial activities of SIMF.

During the event, insights from European and national mission implementation and experiences from Social innovation (funding) practice will be shared. 

With that, we aim to open a dialogue on how to better connect R&I ecosystems, (social) policy actors, funders, investors and civil society to enhance mission-oriented policy-delivery through social innovation. Selected speakers will present the five EU Missions, the way how these missions are implemented in Austria, and how social innovations are enabled in Austria and across the EU by the Austrian Competence Centre for SI. An open fishbowl discussion will conclude the thematic part of this event.   

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