We had four main project objectives, the first of which was that the field of social innovation would come to greater knowledge of itself. This meant increasing the collective understanding of the actors and organisations working across Europe (and in some cases, globally), who were often unaware of complementary work being carried out within the field. Secondly, we aimed to increase field coherence in the networks we engage with, meaning increase the alignment, resonance, and clarity of objectives amongst these networks. Third, we wanted to develop the processes and tools to welcome and train new people and exchange knowledge among experienced actors. This would enable deeper levels of engagement and create avenues for future peer to peer learning lasting beyond the period of the project. And finally, we intended for the field to reach out and engage mainstream leaders and attract citizens to learn and collaborate, so as to widen the sphere of impact and create ripples of influence reaching beyond the networks that are currently engaged in these change processes.
In the current metacrisis of interlocking socio-ecological challenges and disconnect from self, others and nature, more than ever we need adult education in collaborative and regenerative principles and practices. Formal education currently falls short in developing psychosocial resilience, collaborative skills, and worldviews for large-scale systemic change. Alternative education and field-building of networks committed to integrating inner development and systemic change is needed to shift paradigms for a more peaceful, just and healthy world. We recognised that a key lever to this change would be building communities of coherence in an emerging field of actors taking innovative paradigmatic/whole-systems approaches to social change. We saw the need to support greater connections among these actors, provide tools, practices, and knowledge for increasing individual and collective coherence and impact, and create means by which a greater number of mainstream leaders and citizens can learn and engage from this field of leading-edge social innovation. Our collaborative applied to this grant to amplify the work of paradigmatic change makers and enable them to positively influence multiple, diverse layers of society.