Health is a fundamental right. And therefore, healthy living is of high priority on the EU agenda. Yet, it is a complex challenge that requires to break up the fragmented health sector. Because, to achieve health for all, aligned co-operation is vital, both at systemic and individual levels. For it, the NEST Innovation Alliance co-creates a new form of social innovation ecosystem that acts as a sustainable vehicle for societal transitions and increased capacity in knowledge creation towards healthy living. Our aim is to empower local communities to thrive with social innovation towards a healthy society. Ten partners from six countries plus one European network partner from higher education, VET, research, and business pick up two main learning questions: How to position and organise a social innovation ecosystem sustainably into long term societal transitions? And how to grow and maintain knowledge and collective agency of the diverse healthy living stakeholders in social innovation ecosystems? To answer them, we implement four international communities of practice on a) social business development, b) engaged community science, c) reflexive monitoring, and d) knowledge creation. With it, we learn about appropriate governance and leadership structures, about building engagement and capacity towards sustaining, and about innovative solutions for transformative learning. It leads to a blueprint of a Social Innovation Ecosystem for Healthy Living (SIEHL) with effective governance and sustainable implementation strategies, plus educational courses to empower change agents. A unique feature is that we dock our learning in SIEHL with existing educational structures. This leads to greater capacity of education institutes to co-create with socio-economic stakeholders towards a quintuple helix. Ultimately leading to more innovative and sustainable solutions for healthy living in local communities, and a healthier and more resilient society in Europe.