Social innovation general definition
- A new answer to social needs or societal challenges, met by Alpine area, regardless of the nature of innovation (technology, services, new uses…),
- Through a collaborative approach that involves beneficiaries, users and affected stake holders,
- That has a positive, sustainable and measurable impact.
Possible levels of applications
- Social needs and societal challenges* (ecological issues must be linked to social need or challenge?) Cf. WPT2
- Positive impact
- Sustainable impact
- Measurable impacts
- Beneficiaries/users
Social innovation processes
Social innovation impact
- What are the criteria? (definition)
- What are the indicators? (evaluation)
Social innovation criteria
We need to agree on the definition of each of these elements:
- Level of newness / concept of innovation
- Social dimension
- Ecological (environmental) dimension.
How do we consider this question of environment? Either as a separate condition if we consider ecology and social innovation are closely related or do we only consider the environment aspect when it is clearly linked to a social need, as suggested (cf. WPT2)
Social impact measurement
We suggest to determine 2 or 3 simple key elements easy to operate to measure social impact and to consider time of observation.
- Level of complexity. Logical course of action doesn’t allow complex models. Cf. WP4. (some simple tools have been developed by AVISE and other organisations).
> Social impact existing tools benchmark
- Duration: Immediate impact/medium term and long-term impact and connection between impact in time.
- Effectiveness/efficiency (= effectiveness + level of mobilized resources)
- Side effects/unexpected effects (on observed population or another population)
Assumption: An action cannot be presented as a positive impact if it induces a negative impact otherwise)
Further notes:
Considering issues encountered by invited actors to fill online survey, it might be relevant to anticipate an awareness program (videos, testimonies…) before implementing training and social innovation schools.