ESF-SI-2023-NCC-01-0004

ESIA is one of the five projects supported under the Call on building-up and consolidating the capacities of national competence centres for social innovation, launched under the Social Innovation+ initiative. The call contributes to:

• Enhancement of professionalisation and further development of  NCCs that already exist or are being created in the EU Member States which participated in the 2020 call;
• Creation of NCCs in the Member States where they were not created under the 2020 call.

The ESIA project is designed to address the evolving social and economic challenges in Europe, presents an innovative approach towards fostering social innovation and involvement at both civil society and organizational levels. The core objective is to establish and enhance NCCs in Germany, Luxembourg, Estonia, and the Netherlands. These NCCs will serve as hubs for supporting, exchanging, and implementing effective social innovation practices, thereby strengthening national ecosystems and contributing to the EU’s broader objectives.

The collaborative expertise of various organizations, each bringing specialized knowledge in EU funding programs, social innovation, research, and social finance, lays in the core of the ESIA project. This collective capability is instrumental in managing and coordinating transnational and national efforts, fostering social innovation, and ensuring effective implementation and sustainable impact.

During three years (June 2024-June 2027) NCCs in the ESIA consortium engage in activities on: 

• Building and continuously improving the professional capacities on national competence centres for supporting social innovation;
• Developing and nurturing sustainable relationships, networks, collaborations, synergies and learning partnerships;
• Creating, developing and operating a resource centre and a hub for social innovation;
• Facilitating and supporting social innovation initiatives;
• Raising awareness and providing guidance and training;
• Disseminating information on the available funding;
• Mobilising and empowering stakeholders to develop and continuously improve policies and actions for supporting social innovations.

Expected outputs at the national level: 

• Fully operational NCC serving as a local hub of expertise, professional resources, partnership, and development within their respective countries;
• A national strategy and action plan.

Expected outputs at the transnational level: 

• Professional transnational networks and working groups for mutual learning, facilitation in the transnational replication / mainstreaming / scaling-up of social innovation initiatives.  

Funding: 2,458,894 Eur