Projects

BuiCaSuS: Working to Build Competence Centres for Social Innovation in Spain, Latvia, France and Sweden

A project carried out for Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 of the Spanish State Secretariat for Social Rights

The project has a duration of 24 months (from May 2021 to April 2023). During this time, BuiCaSuS promotes the exchange of concepts and social innovation practices at both national and European level. The European Social Fund (2021-27) has reinforced its programming now requiring the structures at the level of all EU Member States to accompany, promote and evaluate social innovation ecosystems. 

The project includes partners from Spain (as Lead Applicant), Latvia, France and Sweden with diverse profiles that go from ministries to NGOs. It is one of the six consortia selected by the European Commission to explore how social innovation contributes to the creation of more sustainable societies.  

The Spanish Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 coordinates one of six consortia at a European level. The goal is to promote social innovation ecosystems. The project is funded by the European Commission through the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI). It consists of seven partners from four countries and it features the participation of more than 20 organisations. 

 

02. What was our role?

1

How we can upscale social innovation projects. 

2

What is the state of the art today in social innovation and sustainable societies at national level. 

3

What are the strengths and weaknesses of countries’ social innovation systems. 

4

Which tools, methods and best practices can be shared for cooperation, mutual learning and generation of social impact.  

5

How we can translate all this into National Strategies and Action Plans for Social Innovation Competence Centres in each partner country. 

03. Challenges

The general objective of BuiCaSuS is to foster transnational cooperation and mutual learning to create or strengthen institutions and organisations acting as national competence centres to nurture an ecosystem of social innovation in the respective Member states.  

This will be materialised by the following specific objectives:  

1. To identify and map the strengths, weaknesses, and inspirational initiatives of the partners’ social innovation ecosystems. 

2. To learn from other countries how they practically promote social innovation for addressing social needs and prepare and test replication or up-scaling of social innovation projects in between partner countries. 

3. To facilitate cooperation and experience exchange on methods, tools and approaches for promoting social innovation between the institutions and actors in four partner countries.  

4. To develop strategies and establish conditions for the creation or strengthening of Competence Centres for Social Innovation that can be developed with the support of the ESF in the coming years. 

“Connecting innovative entities, both in public administration and in the third sector, to experiment with systematic methods of generating responses to tangled problems has enormous transformative potential.“

Reunión del proyecto Buicasus
Mujeres trabajando en el campo

04. Solutions

As a result of BuiCaSuS, impacts will take place at three levels, and adapted to each Member State context and their respective SI ecosystems and practices:  

At Project Level:

  • BuiCaSuS will generate an international knowledge injection to the development and strengthening of national social innovation ecosystems partaking in the intervention
  • Joint frameworks around social innovation capacity building structures will be elaborated and working methods and approaches refined. 
  • The project will also solidify National ESF Managing Authorities’ commitments to support the establishment of national competence centres for social innovation that are aligned with ESF+ programming period.  

At Actor level:

  • Both public administration and private operators, including third sector and others, will be encouraged to consider new modalities of private-public cooperation, and overcome well-known stalemates of social welfare reform due to policy fragmentation. 

At System Level:

  • a structured discussion on the institutional features, organizational requirements and practical equipment with skills and knowledge of national Competence Centres for Social Innovation.

Fresno’s technical assistance acts as a bridge that connects Spain and its different regional realities with the European overview. Learning from the wealth both here and there generates very concrete proposals on how to move forward in the transition to more sustainable care models.

Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 of the Spanish State Secretariat for Social Right

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