The social economy is playing an increasingly important role, largely thanks to its ability to tackle some of the main challenges facing Europe, in particular the need to promote sustainable and socially inclusive economic growth and create jobs. The ambition of the INN-CO project is to place its action in an ecosystem conducive to the development of social enterprises. It is about increasing their visibility and that of citizens' initiatives, in particular: - model the key factors for the success of social enterprises, identify the conditions for their transferability, - Increase the competitiveness of social enterprises through innovation in the use of digital tools and the creation of strategic alliances. - Promote processes of innovation, knowledge transfer, commercial, scientific and technological exchange through the creation of synergies between companies and relevant entities in the social economy sector. Objectives of the project are: - Strengthen the skills of teacher-researchers and trainer-researchers in the digital management of social enterprise projects in Europe - Increase the collective skills of European social entrepreneurs by sharing practices and innovations. - Generate new common European knowledge and models. The project involves the creation of 2 outputs: - O1 The Collaborative Design Model as an important support tool for social SMEs - O2 Virtual Cluster for Social Enterprises to support members in the development of initiatives and awareness programs in the field of entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility and the creation of social partnerships. There will also be training activities considered LTTA Trainings (C1-C5) as fundamental elements both to increase the knowledge and skills of the project participants and for the development of the outputs of the INN-CO project through co-creation with a collaborative approach. Each will involve 3 participants per partner organization involving the staff of the members of the partnership made up of trainers, tutors, educators in the VET area, professional social enterprise experts, social entrepreneurs. This could also include some volunteers from the project partners. As regards the impact, the participants thanks to the training received during the project and the exchange generated with other participants from the member countries, will be able to put the Collaborative Design method into practice with its various tools (participatory workshops, dialogue and experiential learning) to achieve a specific goal or solve a specific problem. The partner institutions will have more synergies between the members of the partnership, social enterprises members of the Virtual Cluster, stakeholders involved in the social economy. The social entrepreneurs involved will improve their skills in promoting the Collaborative Design approach within their companies and the social enterprises, associations and other stakeholders involved will be part of the Virtual Cluster. Finally, a strong impact at all levels will be given by ITC technologies and digital skills developed in the participants, allowing them to reach more stakeholders globally to develop future collaborations.
INN-CO's aim has been to increase the visibility of social enterprises and citizens' initiatives, in particular: - model the key factors for the success of social enterprises (virtual clustering, innovative collaboration). - Increase the competitiveness of social enterprises through innovation in the use of digital tools and the creation of strategic alliances. - Promote innovation processes and knowledge transfer, through the creation of synergies. With Inn-Co we have worked in one of the forms of innovative collaboration in which a group of social enterprises have combined resources and skills to face complex challenges in the sector, in the fields of training, research and commercial exchange. Following the line of objectives formulated by the OECD / EU 2017 Report, we also set out to: - Strengthen the skills of teacher-researchers and trainers in the digital management of social enterprise projects in Europe. - Increase the collective capacities of European social entrepreneurs. - Increase the capacity for collaboration and cooperation between a network of enterprises and social actors. - Generate new knowledge and common European models: Design Collaborative.
The social economy is playing an increasingly important role, largely due to its ability to address some of the major challenges facing Europe, particularly the need to promote sustainable and socially inclusive economic growth and job creation. The key figures of the European social economy show: - over 13.6 million paid jobs in Europe, - about 6.3% of the working population of the 28 Member States, - hiring a workforce of more than 19.1 million people, - over 232 million members of cooperatives, mutuals and similar structures, - over 2.8 million structures and enterprises (recent developments of the social economy in the European Union CIRIEC CES / CSS / 12/2016/23406). Social enterprises can be important partners for governments, helping them achieve important policy goals (tackling unemployment and poverty, increasing social cohesion, etc.). However, they face a number of obstacles which may limit their action. Supportive political ecosystems are essential to help social enterprises to overcome these obstacles. (OECD / EU Report 2017, Promoting the development of social enterprises). INN-CO's ambition is to place its action in an ecosystem favourable to the development of social enterprises.