About us
The Social Innovation Factory is a networking organisation of civil society organisations and social entrepreneurs that promotes, coaches and supports social and societal innovative concepts. Read more about our mission, how we work, what we do and who we are.
Tackling Wicked Problems through Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Wicked problems
Our societies are increasingly confronted with so-called ‘wicked problems’. Challenges such as climate change, mobility, solitude and poverty are complex and multidimensional. It seems they can’t be solved by the existing approaches or by the traditional actors only. To tackle these wicked problems, we need to think differently and experiment with new solutions.
In Flanders, we have a rich history of social movements, civil society organisations and cooperative enterprises. They all strive to solve social issues in creative ways since a long time. The above described increasing complexity of the social issues they face, combined with the global economic crisis and austerity in government funding, has been pushing these actors to explore new grounds and to join forces. Actors now collaborate with each other, with companies, with governments, academia, and funders. ‘Social innovation’ is exactly this: developing methodologies, products, services, partnerships and mindsets that should lead to new and improved solutions for societal problems.
Social innovation is an innovative solution to a major social issue that results in a product, service, organisational model or method with a social impact.
Social innovation AND social entrepreneurship
The Social Innovation Factory was founded in 2013 by a mix of profit and non-profit actors supporting this movement of exploring a broad range of solutions for societal challenges. From the onset it was decided to focus on both social innovation and social entrepreneurship. Whereas social innovation refers to the broader logic of providing new solutions to new or existing societal problems (which can occur through or independent of business ventures), social entrepreneurship refers to tackling societal issues in an entrepreneurial way.
Openness
Key to our approach is that the network, knowledge and services of the Social Innovation Factory are open to everyone. Social innovation and social entrepreneurship can be found within civil society organisations, government actors, individual citizens and entrepreneurs alike. This openness avoids getting stuck in narrow-minded preconceptions about where good initiatives (should) originate. We actively try to break down barriers and we intentionally cross organisational, sectoral and disciplinary boundaries.
Together
We do not believe in a linear innovation model in which these innovations are expected to flow exclusively from researchers through entrepreneurs towards end users. There is a growing understanding of the value of joint learning processes as the instigators of innovative and sustainable solutions. The lively interactions that make up these joint learning processes do not occur spontaneously, especially not under competitive market conditions. They require deliberate effort and need space, to allow for mutual trust to grow and for actors to start innovating together.
Our mission
Our long term goal is to shape a society in which all kinds of stakeholders, including social organisations, companies, researchers, individuals and government actors, can contribute to the wellbeing of society. To reach this long term goal, we set ourselves a mission to raise awareness about social innovation and social entrepreneurship, and to enable actors to tackle societal challenges in a socially innovative and entrepreneurial way.
How we work
We welcome people working on any relevant societal issue such as sustainability, green energy, healthy food, poverty alleviation, well-being, education, ageing or a combination of different issues. We reach out to a broad variety of actors, since we believe in the power of cross-fertilisation between civil society organisations, enterprises, government actors and academia.
Three levers: access to people, to knowledge and to funding
The services and actions we are deploying evolve continuously, along with our insights in the needs of our target audience and along with newly emerging knowledge and trends. The examples of services and actions presented in this publication relate to three important needs of social innovators and social entrepreneurs : the need to access people, knowledge and funding.
- Access to people: We have developed (and are continuously refining) a range of formats that help people to get in touch with people who can help. Although it is invisible perhaps to the public, there is a lot of matchmaking and engineering going on behind the scenes, to make sure people get what they need. Our whole team gathers on a structural basis to discuss every single innovator’s specific needs; we put our collective intelligence, creativity and networks forward to offer the best possible advice, matches and referral.
- Access to knowledge: Building knowledge on social innovation and social entrepreneurship is a crucial supportive activity. We collaborate with various universities and other knowledge centers to provide input to enrich their curricula in these fields. We also run our own R&D projects to develop tools to support innovators and entrepreneurs. For example, we carried out an action-research on societal impact measurement, through which organisations and coaches developed knowledge and expertise on measuring and evaluating impact. Impact Track is a result of this.
- Access to funding: We continuously broaden our network of actors who can support innovators and entrepreneurs financially, and are always on the lookout for additional money for starting or scaling social entrepreneurs, be it government money, private investors, corporate funds or other sources.
Our target audiences
To realise the full extent of our mission, we are directing actions towards four target groups, which we call the innovators, the enablers, the ‘potentials’, and the public at large.
- Innovators: Our main impact and strength lies in informing and getting people started in their socially innovative projects, without necessarily having to accompany actors all along their trajectory until launch of product or service.
- Enablers: We have in the course of the years built up extensive contacts with funders and experts (our so called 'chancegivers'), ready to enable social innovators and social entrepreneurs. We have been developing a range of actions and services to continuously broaden this network, and to allow these ‘enablers’ to be of best use to innovators.
- Potentials: The Factory wants to inspire people to take the plunge and look at the world through the lens of social innovation and social entrepreneurship. A range of actions are directed to people who are considered to be in good positions to realize important innovations: we call them the ‘potentials’. These people work in all kinds of sectors, such as health care, technology, sports, education, and so on. The aim is to plant seeds, to offer these people some inspirational insights, to get them to innovate.
- Public at large: Communication is key to realize the mission of the Social Innovation Factory, as it can help to build up support as broadly as possible. We bring social innovation and social entrepreneurship to the public at large through our website, newsletter, publications and social media, and we deliver talks to raise awareness at an array of public events. An example of our efforts to inform a broad range of formerly unattended people about social innovation and social entrepreneurship is the New Radicals campaign (more info below).
Examples of our services and actions
Accelerations days
Once a year we organise Acceleration day XL. On this day we connect 100 innovators/entrepreneurs with 100 'chancegivers'. It's a day where people offering interesting opportunities: representatives of funds, grant providers, individuals with thematic expertise, aspiring mentors, or simply people with extensive networks. The Social Innovation Factory map out supply and demand in advance to ensure that, during the different timeslots, the right opportunity providers will join the social entrepreneurs and social innovators at the table. People go home equipped with new insights and new contacts.
Start-up club and scalers club
Every year, we work with several cohorts of start-ups and scalers. Social entrepreneurs can apply for becoming part of oneof these clubs in which they be offered workshops on business modeling, ptiching, stakeholder engagement etc, as well as masterclasses, peer-sessions and 'safarris' (visits to social entreprises). Mostly, these cohorts are multi-thematic, but we also provide more thematic oriented trajectories e.g. for social enterprises using sports as leverage.
System Shakers
Each year we bring together hundreds of innovative and entrepreneurial minds—all people who are (or want to be) building a better world at System Shakers. With systemic change as the central theme, System Shakers offers a rich program of workshops, interactive sessions, inspiring testimonials, and endless networking opportunities.
New Radicals
We run this campaign every two years with a number of partners. It is a large scale search – with broad media coverage - to identify radical innovations for a better world. We started this campaign in 2015 and identified 50 New Radicals since. Together, we search for new solutions to society's major challenges. New Radicals are building new solutions for housing, inclusion, climate, mental well-being, care, poverty, and more. They transform radical ideas into a radically new reality, making a meaningful difference for many.
Projects
We collaborate on several projects both nationally and internationally, ranging from strengthening social enterprises through digitalization to establishing a vibrant 'community of practice' around impact evaluation:
- Insisst: we coordinate the International Network for Social Innovation Scaling and Systemic Transformation, or Insisst for short. We are proud to continue developing the competence center, including within a European context. Together with partners from Finland, the Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, and Ireland, we are embarking on this exciting journey. This collaboration will allow us to learn a great deal from one another and share valuable insights. The project launched in July 2024 and ends June 2027.
- DIGI SEII: with the project DIGI SEII, we provide social enterprises and their support organizations with the digital tools and skills they need to scale and increase their impact. Digi what?! DIGI SEII stands for Digital Scaling for Social Enterprises: Empowering Impact and Innovation. The project launched in September 2024 and will run for three years.
- Collective Impact Lab: For over 11 years, we have believed that focusing on impact is the key to addressing complex societal challenges. Many organizations and innovators also recognize the value of setting the right impact objectives and mapping out their achieved impact. However, we also see that impact evaluation—and sustaining it—is no easy task. It requires time, money, and expertise. That’s where the Collective Impact Lab aims to make a difference. The project runs from September 2024 to December 2025.
- Buy Social: We are bringing the social procurement movement in Europe to the next level. We empower mainstream and social enterprises to build sustainable trade partnerships for greater impact.
The team
The Social Innovation Factory counts 10 people. Meet the team: Director Kaat, impact expert Tomas, systems thinker Caroline, jack-of-all-trades Karen Hiergens, questioner Kathleen, communications strategist Dorien, creative Ilias, organizer Karen Peirens, 'user-first' thinker Ravi, and strength architect Katrien.