Cluster 2

Creative solutions to Europe’s challenges through social innovation

Published on: 03/11/2022

Social innovations are inventive responses that provide solutions to unmet social problems and needs, nurture social relationships and build new collaborations. These innovations can be products, services or models that address societal, business and governmental needs more effectively.

The Results Pack "Creative solutions to Europe’s challenges through social innovation" published by the European Commission, highlights 10 projects supported through Horizon 2020 that illustrate the value and broad scope of social innovation. These selected projects give examples of novel approaches and new forms of cooperation to empower civil society and bring social impact, often providing a previously unexplored alternative to conventional approaches in dealing with these challenges.

Together, these projects showcase the broad potential of social innovation to tackle societal problems, and the importance of scaling up successful projects.

Results Pack: Creative solutions to Europe’s challenges through social innovation

Social innovations address societal objectives such as improving the welfare of individuals or communities, supporting climate action, or serving biodiversity and environmental protection and remediation. They can be triggered by the desire to give a new purpose to a closed factory, or the urgency to answer to the needs of vulnerable people, and engage local communities, public authorities, businesses and academia – the ‘Quadruple Helix’ – in the co-creation of solutions.