European Community of Practice

The Steering Group did a presentation talk-show style at the Open Days during the European Week of Regions and cities. We kept away from Power Point and the panel gave examples and answered questions about social innovation in the EQUAL and ESF network. Some of the key isssues that made sense to me as they talked about successful projects of social innovation were:

• The importance of partnership with flexible stake-holders who are involved in identifying the problem to be solved;
• The importance of good planning;
• Projects start small as pilot projects and then scale up as they show added value;
• Innovation does not have to be a paradigm shift, it can be small ways of doing things better.
• There is a time issue as good projects can be a lengthy business. there is a tension between time and funding expectations
• Projects are product and results driven;
• The importance of creativity and knowing that failure is as important to innovation as is success. This needs to be budgeted for.
• The question of who measures and evaluates a project.
• The issue of monitoring and evaluation of projects and social innovation. Are numbers a non-issue or, rather, how do you capture an evaluation for cost purposes if you are not using numbers?

I would be interested to know if other members also identify with these issues.