The development and democratization of digital technologies has had continuous and profound socio-economic impacts: it creates the conditions for workers to gain in autonomy, stepping away from job routine to pursue more independent and flexible work arrangements. From this context have emerged new needs and aspirations, especially of three kinds: (i) entrepreneurial (soft) skills enabling individuals to collaborate, design and set up innovative projects and organisations; (ii) physical spaces stimulating such collaborations; (iii) models sustaining spaces combining openness (towards their beneficiaries and local stakeholders) and viability (through relevant business models). Our Strategic partnership brings together co-working spaces, higher educational institutions, innovation communities and international networks / umbrella organizations. SCC starts from the spaces and tools enabling to Share, in a view to promote and stimulate Collaboration, around Cooperation as a governance model enabling active participation through equality and democracy. It pursues the following objectives: General objective: Establish a strategic partnership between co-working spaces, innovation communities and educational institutions, aiming for the emergence of collaborative spaces for community-driven innovation, and anticipating the transition towards a digital society. Specific objectives: • Models: Supporting the transformation of co-working spaces towards collaborative spaces, stimulating community-driven collaborative innovation • Activities: Fostering the creation and systemization of workflows between co-working spaces, HEIs and innovation communities, for the democratization and improvement of lifelong work-based entrepreneurial education • Tools: Developing methodologies aimed at systematizing trans-sectoral educational partnerships for community-driven collaborative innovation embedding transnational cooperation and international mobility SCC project includes the following activities: 1/ Production of four intellectual outputs: - Best practices report on collaborative spaces and cooperative governance models - Mapping of higher educational programmes embedding work-based learning in co-working environments - Methodologies and VET tools: bridging higher education and coworking spaces - Policy paper - A cooperative vision for the digital society: enabling community-driven innovation 2/ Two transnational learning sessions for practitioners involved in the setting up and development of collaborative spaces (i.e. staff members of HEIs, co-working spaces, innovation communities and umbrella organizations). These learning sessions will involve on the one hand a sharing of experiences, knowledge and skills among participants, and on the other hand co-design sessions aimed at producing methodologies and VET tools. 3/ Local multiplier events, for the testing of intellectual outputs in real-life conditions, with the ambition of experimenting the setting up of collaborative spaces in 4 pilot territories (Belgium, France, Spain, Italy). The project will close with a European multiplier event, sharing experiences and presenting recommendations proposed by the policy paper. Project activities are designed in a way to ensure that all participating organizations be involved at all stages of this projet. 4 leaders (Cooperatives Europe, OuiShare Quebec, Mondragon University and Impact Hub Firenze) will bring along 4 pilot co-working spaces through the production of intellectual outputs, capitalizing on their own expertise. SCC aims for the development of a multistakeholder ecosystem around collaborative spaces. We envisage expected impacts under a 2-dimension logic. A. ‘Horizontal’ results: the concept of ‘collaborative spaces for community-driven innovation’ emerges as a model for anticipating challenges and needs related to the transition to a digital era B. ‘Field-specific’ results are envisioned as a ‘value-chain’, starting from the organizers (mentors/trainers of co-working spaces), engaging their direct environments (HEIs and innovation communities), and eventually outreaching to intermediaries (umbrella organizations) and policy-makers before contaminating new co-working spaces and communities around Europe. - 8 mentors/trainers of co-working spaces will be able to set up and facilitate collaborative spaces for community-driven innovation, and benefit from relevant transnational networks - 8 HEI staff members will be able to embed work-based learning as part of their curricula, enhancing their capacity to address identified skill gaps stemming from the digital society - 4 trainers/mentors of innovation communities will have enhanced their capacities to outreach to traditional educational institutions and co-working spaces - 3 representatives of umbrella organizations will be able to promote and advocate for the development of collaborative spaces
SCC (Sharing, Collaboration, Cooperation) is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership that unites co-working spaces, higher education institutions, innovation communities, international networks and umbrella organizations, with the general objective of stimulating the development of collaborative spaces for innovation and anticipating the transition to a digital society. In 2017 Cooperatives Europe launched a vision paper titled “A cooperative vision for the collaborative economy,” presenting the European institutions with a set of recommendations to shape a “responsible, sustainable and community-driven collaborative economy”. This project was built in the footsteps of that vision paper and adopted the definition of collaborative economy presented in it. To bring forward the reflection in this field, the partners researched the relationship between innovation and collaboration and produced 4 Intellectual outputs: - Best practices report on collaborative spaces and cooperative governance models (PDF) - Mapping of higher educational programmes embedding work-based learning in co-working environments (delivered in PDF and as an interactive online map on scc.coop) - Caracol Toolkit: Community-Aware Research and Action toolkit for Collaborative Learning (available on scc.coop website as ) - Collaborating in times of crisis: Lessons learnt during the Covid-19 pandemic (PDF) The partners explored many dimensions of the topic. Starting from the definition of coworking and collaboration, to mapping existing higher education curricula offering work based learning through coworking spaces, to developing a comprehensive toolkit to support communities in the launch of their own collaborative initiatives, to imagining the future of work and collaboration after the Covid-19 pandemic. The multiplier events organised have reached directly over 100 people live and many more online disseminating project results and all the content published on the project website scc.coop. Partners and associated partners are committed to maintain the network alive and make use of all the produced materials to continue promoting and supporting community-driven innovation.