News

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe: International Conference - Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Innovation and entrepreneurship are key drivers of sustainable economic growth and international competitiveness. They are also critical for meeting the environmental and social challenges ahead. But innovation and entrepreneurship do not flourish automatically on their own. The international evidence shows that there are vast differences in the capacity of economies to innovate, and many of these differences can be traced to differences in the supporting policy environment.

To discuss these issues, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, in cooperation with the Croatian Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts and the Government of the Republic of Croatia, is organising an international conference on "Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Making Things Work Better" on 23 - 24 May 2013. The full agenda is available here.

Filippo Addarii, Chief Executive of Euclid Network, will be speaking about addressing social and environmental challenges using social entrepreneurship. You can find his presentation here.

Social Innovation Prize candidates: Grassroots creation of new businesses

The current economic crisis has highlighted the necessity for radical change in the way we approach our social and economic challenges. Across Europe millions of people are unemployed, they feel that they are stuck in low-paid jobs or that they have few opportunities in the job market.

Social innovation can stimulate a more dynamic, inclusive and sustainable social market economy creating new products, services and businesses. To boost social innovation, the European Commission launched the Social Innovation Competition in memory of Diogo Vasconcelos on 1st October 2012. Europeans were invited to develop solutions for creating new opportunities for work, and for better work. As a result over 600 proposals were received, out of which ten finalists have been selected. Three of them will each be awarded a prize of €20,000 at the European Social Innovation Awards Ceremony in Brussels on 29 May 2013.

Click here for a  brief overview of each of the ten finalists.

Technical exercise and political opportunity: the multi-stakeholder consultation on EU support to civil society in the Western Balkans and Turkey

   On the 24^th-25^th of February, DG Enlargement organised a multi-stakeholder consultation on EU support to civil society in the Western Balkans and Turkey. The event aimed to be hands-on and concrete, gathering inputs from CSOs and public authorities (national and local) to produce a new matrix that will be used to assess country and regional development over the next seven years. The matrix includes objectives, results and indicators and focuses on enabling the environment, CSOs' capacity and mechanism of cooperation between CSOs and public authorities. The event was not only a technical exercise, but also a political opportunity.

Choose the Next Winner of the Next Century Innovator Awards

Rockefeller foundation announced their first two winners and two finalists of the Next Century Innovator Awards, a project of the Rockefeller Foundation Centennial Initiative. The first two Century Innovator Awardees are the Nature Conservancy/Water Funds focusing on the work in Latin America and Global Minimum/ Innovative Salone building solutions to local problems of youth in Sierra Leone.  

Innovation has been at the core of the Foundation's work for a century, leading to some of the most important advancements of the modern era and finding solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems, in exiting and unexpected ways. The innovators are forging new pathways, changing the way we deliver services, and improving conditions for the most vulnerable populations in the world.

Explore the innovations, discover how these remarkable innovators improve future of us all and vote for your favorite one today here. Based on your votes, one of our finalists will receive the third Next Century Innovator Award, which includes the opportunity to apply for a $100,000 grant.

Fostering A Citizens’ Europe Conference

Conference marking the culmination of the Fostering A Citizens’ Europe project will be held 7^th June 2013 (10:30am- 4:30pm) in Utrecht, Netherlands.

The Fostering A Citizen’s Europe project is a transnational initiative which brought together community sector partners from Locality (UK), Landelijk Samenwerkingsverband Aandachtswijken (Netherlands),AEIPLOUS: Institute for Innovation & Sustainable Development (Greece), Suomen Setlementtiliitto (Finland) and Fritidsforum (Sweden).