Social Innovation

From Talent1st

Contents 1 What is Social Innovation? 2 Social Innovation at Carleton University 3 Advisory Committee on Social Innovation 4 Upcoming Events 5 Recent Events 6 Useful Resources 7 Contacts

[edit] What is Social Innovation?

Social innovators are individuals who propose novel ways to consider and solve major social issues. Social innovators partner with communities to offer sustainable solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. The social innovator recognizes when a part of society is stuck and provides new ways to get unstuck. Rather than leaving societal needs to government or business, social innovators solve problems by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new approaches.

Effective social innovation links research to practice, builds on existing community strengths, takes a long-term view, encourages measured risks, builds networks and partnerships across sectors and silos, and invests in strategic research and policy analysis.

[edit] Social Innovation at Carleton University

Carleton University believes it can become a leading institution in social innovation by establishing a distinctive and competitive research and project profile. This profile will be supported by four outcomes:

1. Achieve high levels of activity in this area
2. Create an environment that actively engages student participation
3. Create and sustain a productive and active network of collaboration between researchers across faculties and scholars at other universities and/or institutions, domestically and internationally
4. Establish strong partnerships and links outside of the academic community

[edit] Advisory Committee on Social Innovation

An advisory committee comprised of key community partners and faculty will be announced shortly. The committee's mandate would be to identify:

1. potential areas that would benefit from university-community partnerships to develop and implement socially innovative solutions.
2. mechanisms to engage Carleton University students to work towards these solutions.
3. how the university and community can work together to leverage the resources to address key issues.

[edit] Upcoming Events

[edit] Recent Events

• Celebrating Dialogue: An International SAS2 Forum, November 3, 2008, 9:00am to 5:30pm, Carleton University
• Social Innovation Challenge Finals, November 25, 2008, 6:00pm to 8:00pm, Centurion Centre
• Blue Sky Meeting on Social Innovation, February 22, 2008
• Talent First Network Call For Proposals, grants up to $30,000 available for novel applications of open source technology in support of social innovation projects.
• 2008 Social Innovation Challenge, Fall 2008

[edit] Useful Resources

• J.W. McConnell Family Foundation Social Innovation Initiative
• New partnership to foster and support social innovation in Canada, J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, News Release, January 3, 2007
• MaRS names community advocate to lead new social innovation initiative, December 4, 2007
• Centre for Social Innovation at the University of Toronto
• Social Innovation Generation at the University of Waterloo
• The Surge of Social Entrepreneurship, Randy Komisar, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Speaker Series, Stanford Technology Ventures Program

[edit] Contacts

Office of Vice President, Research and International:

• Kim Matheson, Acting Vice- President (Research and International)
• Luc Lalande, Director, Innovation Transfer Office