Social Innovation Event in Brussels

Earlier this month the University of Alicante participated in a dynamic social innovation event that took place on September 6th and 7th at Scotland House in Brussels. The event was organized by our colleagues from Glasgow Caledonian University, with the support of the European Commission, in particular the International Capacity Building Unit. They wanted to bring together participants from various points around the globe in order to envisage, propose and, subsequently, to establish a worldwide network that explores and demonstrates how universities can support social innovation more effectively. 

This aspiration evolved through the experience, in particular, of three projects funded under the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education programme, and of which the University of Alicante is a partner: Latin American Social Innovation Network, Southeast Asian Social Innovation Network, and Common Good First in South Africa.

Over the course of two days, representatives of universities from Latin America, Southeast Asia, South Africa and Europe were able to interact with each other and with other social innovation actors from the same regions and learn about each other’s projects and plans. There were plenty of opportunities to discuss future collaborations, and dynamic workshops to brainstorm innovative solutions to social problems.

The University of Alicante was well represented by UA Professors, Liberto Carratalá and Ángel Nájera Perez (also of Wolf Project Management), together with OGPI senior project manager Cristina Beans. They were able to share the UA’s experience participating in the above-mentioned Erasmus+ projects on Social Innovation, as well as promote the UA’s new Masters programme on Social Innovation and Dynamics of Change and discuss with all the participants about universities’ experience and role in developing and promoting Social Innovation.