Centre for Social Investment • Heidelberg University

CSI project profiles • November 2009 • www.csi.uni-heidelberg.de

research

TEPSIE - Growing Social Inovation

The international research project „Theoretical, Empirical and Policy Foundations for Social Innovation in Europe“ (TEPSIE) is funded by the European Commission.

European societies have become increasingly aware of a number of social problems they all have in common, such as climate change, ageing populations, and the tensions and con-flicts arising in pluralistic societies. The growing awareness that current responses to such problems have led to dissatisfying results has provoked an increasing number of urgent calls for new and better solutions.

Social innovation is now a central issue on the political agenda of the EU in its efforts to tackle and solve the challenges of European societies.

Examining social innovations is at the core of the TEPSIE project. Despite the fact that social innovation as a field of interest develops dynamically across the World, the effective utili-sation of the innovative potential in the EU is still limited, due to a lack of a systematic and differentiated research.

In particular, deficits can be perceived when it comes to reliable metrics and measurement models for evaluating the effectiveness and impact of social innovation. The same applies with regard to the questions of how to incorporate social innovation into political agendas and how to design appropriate regulatory framework conditions to support social inno-vation.

Finally, there is a lack of knowledge on effective capital markets and finance instruments for social innovation as well as the mechanisms of networks that are necessary to disseminate social innovation approaches, capacities and expertise.

Since January 2012, a consortium of leading European research institutions has dedicated its collective work to the development of a theoretical, empirical and political foundation of social innovation in Europe, which are vital aspects for generating and promoting the concept.

The results will feed into the EU strategy to foster innovative European societies.

ContactGorgi Krlev

Centre for Social Investment (CSI)Ruprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergAdenauerplatz 169115 Heidelberg

Phone: 06221 - 54 119 -82gorgi.krlev@csi.uni-heidelberg.de

Research ProjectTEPSIE:“Theoretical, Empirical and Policy Foundations for Social Innovation in Europe“

• Duration: January 2012 - January 2015.• Funded by: European Commission (FP-7).

• Research agenda: Theory, empirical cap-turing and policy in the context ofSocial Innovation.

• Objective: Investigating theoretical and practical foundations of Social Innovation.

• www.csi.uni-heidelberg.de/projekte_tepsie.

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CSI Project Profile • February 2012 • www.csi.uni-heidelberg.de