Firstport’s New Social Innovation Challenge To Launch In July
This year, as the theme will be centred around the legacy of COP26, we are seeking solutions to the climate challenges faced by rural communities. We are delighted to announce that the first Social Innovation Challenge will launch on the 20th of July.
A few weeks back I wrote about the process of kickstarting the user research journey for the new Social Innovation Challenge. The Social Innovation Challenge is a redesign of the previous Social Innovation Competition programme. The new programme will award up to £50, 000 to support innovative social enterprise solutions that address annual themes identified by individuals and communities across Scotland.
Launch Event
3rd of August 2022 – 10:30am – 12:30pm
Online – Free
Tap here to attend
We are delighted to announce that the first Social Innovation Challenge will launch on the 20th of July.
Since drafting that initial blog, I have had the pleasure of talking to a number of stakeholders working in the Scottish social enterprise landscape. These conversations have really helped uncover the key challenges and opportunities that are present in this landscape, particularly in relation to rural communities and environmental concerns. They have also given me a better understanding of the gaps that the Social Innovation Challenge is well placed to fill, to avoid duplicating existing efforts and to complement the support already on offer.
Building on this understanding, I also took time to listen to a few of our past and current awardees to better understand the journey of a social entrepreneur from their perspective. This provided me with invaluable insights into the key blockers and enablers that an individual wanting to set up a new social enterprise has to navigate. As my engagement focused on those who either had an environmental aspect to their business, or those living and working in a rural area, I was able to also validate my understanding of the rural context that I gained through my stakeholder interviews.
What we’ve learned so far
Here are some of the key takeaways from this engagement and how we are planning to address these findings through our first round of the redesigned Social Innovation Challenge:
- Social innovation is often the result of a collective effort. Community partnerships, joint working and collective ventures are common occurrences in a rural context; moreover, innovation more generally is also often the result of people with different skills coming together and working across sectors or boundaries. As such, the Social Innovation Challenge will be open to collaborative applications. It will invite applications from individuals, as well as new or existing social enterprises. Collaborative applications from partners looking to co-create a joint social enterprise solution will also be welcome and encouraged.
- Innovation comes in many forms. Creative thinking, applying shared learning in a new way, unique collaborations, re-examining how things are done and coming up with new solutions that meet the needs of a specific community have all been shared as examples of good innovation. Therefore, the Social Innovation Challenge will adopt a broad interpretation of innovation. As long as there is an element of innovative thinking and there is strong social impact to be delivered through a social enterprise, we want to hear about it!
- When it comes to funding models, there is not a one size that fits all. Whilst we can only award a total of £50,000 for this challenge, we are considering how to make the model as flexible as possible to maximise the impact that the funded project(s) can deliver.
- Support, communication and clarity are crucial during the application period. In such a busy support landscape, it is important for social entrepreneurs to know which opportunities are most relevant to them. Therefore, we are preparing a programme of support that will provide key information relevant to the criteria at regular intervals, as well as informal opportunities to speak to the award team. We hope this will help those who have good ideas put their best application forward.
These findings only scratch the surface of the wealth of insight that we received and there are many more linked to the post-award stage that we are currently considering. But having access to these first-hand accounts has allowed us to think about the Social Innovation Challenge in a new way and to really start building the programme from the ground up. And if there are any needs that we cannot address this year, due to time or resource constraints, we will definitely keep this data on the table to revisit next year, together with our ongoing research findings.
Launching the Social Innovation Challenge
Despite still having a few aspects of the Social Innovation Challenge to define, the Challenge will launch very shortly, on 20 July. The full Challenge criteria and guidance will be published then, but if you already have an idea that you think might be relevant to the theme (climate change challenges faced by rural communities), why not subscribe to our Social Innovation Challenge newsletter and receive the latest news and developments. Subscribe here.
Launch Event
3rd of August 2022 – 10:30am – 12:30pm
Online – Free
Tap here to attend