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in this international competition, hosted by the University of Oxford and open to universities worldwide, involves searching for systemic solutions to social issues. Winning the domestic competition held at Vanderbilt University is a prerequisite to compete on the global stage.
3. Coffee Equity Lab[149]
The Coffee Equity Lab project offers students an opportunity to study such topics as climate change, global trade, equality, and justice, all through the lens of the global coffee industry.
Furthermore, students can engage in the Hult Prize, a competition for ideas solving pressing social issues through social entrepreneurship. While the competition has an international scope, Vanderbilt University hosts a regional selection stage for participants.
MODEL 3: “NATIONAL NETWORK FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION DEVELOPMENT”
This model represents a collaboration between universities, various industries, and the government aimed at fostering social innovation. The core concept of this model is that universities serve as hubs for development and incorporate various social projects into their activities that have the potential to address social issues and generate new social innovations. They provide training, conduct research, and apply academic knowledge to advance these projects.
The “National Network for Social Innovation Development” model works to establish close interactions between universities, industries, and the government. Universities receive support and funding from governmental and industrial sources to implement their social projects. In return, the government and industries gain access to innovative solutions and the expertise available at universities.
This model also entails the creation of infrastructure such as innovation centers, technology parks, incubators, and accelerators, to promote social innovation by supporting social entrepreneurs and their projects. These facilities provide resources, expertise, and guidance necessary for the successful implementation of social innovation.
In this model, universities from various regions of the country collaborate to jointly address social issues and develop innovative solutions. Such a network can engage in collaborative research, organize training programs and conferences, and initiate joint projects aimed at tackling specific social challenges.
An illustrative example is the Forum for Social Innovation[150] hosted by Malmö University, Sweden, in cooperation with the City of Malmö, the Scania Region, and the European Regional Development Fund. The publicly funded Forum serves as a national platform for social innovation and social entrepreneurship. It provides and disseminates information and initiates research and development projects.
The primary objective of the Forum is to actively monitor developments in innovation at national and international levels, and to facilitate knowledge exchange and utilization. Through collaboration with stakeholders from academia, private industry, government, and non-profit organizations, the Forum seeks to build capacity for innovation and ideas that address social challenges. Additionally, it aims to bring together new groups of partners from academia, business, nonprofits, and government agencies that support the advancement of social innovation. Since its establishment in 2010, the Forum has expanded to most of Sweden.
MODEL 4: “REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP”
The “Regional Partnership” model is a practice that centers on fostering social innovation within universities through effective collaboration between academic institutions and various stakeholders in a specific region.
In this model, universities take on the role of hubs initiating and facilitating projects designed to address social issues within their respective regions. They set up partnerships with governmental agencies, local businesses, non-governmental organizations, community groups, as well as other educational and research institutions.
Compared to the “National Network for Social Innovation Development” model, which emphasizes collaboration between universities at the national scale to address overarching national challenges (such as fighting poverty or improving access to education), the “Regional Partnership” model is more localized, calling for cooperation between universities and other stakeholders at the regional level. In this model, universities collaborate with local organizations, government offices, entrepreneurs and communities to address local problems and generate social innovations at the regional level. This localized focus enables universities to work in alignment with the unique needs of their regions, making efficient use of resources and expertise to drive positive change at the local level. In summary, the distinction between the “National Network” and the “Regional Partnership” models lies in the scale and level of organization of collaboration between universities and their partners.
The LASIN (Latin American Social Innovation Network) project is an excellent example of a large-scale network partnership aimed at fostering social innovation within higher education institutions. Funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ capacity building program, LASIN focuses on addressing social challenges by establishing specialized units for supporting social innovation in eight universities across Latin America, including Chile, Colombia, Brazil, and Panama. Additionally, LASIN seeks to expand its network to involve other countries and institutions in the region. Each of these Social Innovation Support Units (SISUs) within LASIN has developed its unique model to drive social change within its local community. Despite their diversity, the SISUs share a common objective: to leverage available resources, knowledge, and expertise to serve their communities in innovative, effective, and sustainable ways.
Established within each LASIN partner university in Latin America, SISUs engage various stakeholders, including members of the academic community, students, staff, community organizations, action groups (such as indigenous communities), local government authorities, small businesses, and others.
As an example of a regional SISUs, the Unidade de Suporte à Inovação Social (USIS)[151] operates within the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the largest federal university in Brazil with approximately 54,000 students (Göransson, B., 2017). USIS is officially registered as a development project aimed at building connections between community groups, social movements, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government agencies to identify and support social innovations. Its primary focus is to strengthen the relationship between the university and the broader community by facilitating mutual learning between university members and social innovators. This learning process involves a range of activities, including harnessing the diverse competencies of social innovators and other participants, fostering design thinking, service design, product design, marketing, innovation management, video creation, and the utilization of virtual reality. The project promotes collaborative efforts by sharing materials and tools, conducting workshops, seminars, and mentoring programs (Cruz, P. R., Rebourseau, V. & Luisi, A., 2018).
MODEL 5: “MULTI–COUNTRY PARTNERSHIP”
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