European School of Social Innovation (ESSI): A European Success Story in Advancing Social Innovation 

What if Europe’s most powerful innovations aren’t technological but social? Across the continent, a movement is reshaping approaches to societal challenges like social inequality, climate change, digital transformation, and democratic participation. Strengthening the scientific system plays an important role in building a future-oriented ecosystem for social innovation. Although a community of social innovation scholars has established itself, new researchers continue to enter the field. In order to support the growing community in Germany, the SIGU platform’s Science Network has been formed in recent years.

At international level, the European School of Social Innovation (ESSI) has played a key-role for scholars in Europe since its foundation in 2011. ESSI has become a platform that brings together social innovation researchers and practitioners, connecting knowledge, methods, and networks to empower communities, policymakers, and researchers to collaboratively tackle societal challenges. Over the past fourteen years, ESSI has evolved from an idea into a vibrant, transdisciplinary community that shapes scientific discourse, informs policy, and builds capacities through the educational, research, and outreach activities of its members. Its activities (including publications and events such as summerschools, webinars, scientific conferences like the Eu-SPRI Annual Conference 2025 or the Open Living Lab Days 2023 and 2025) demonstrate how social innovation can contribute to societal transformation. In this Spotlight we want to sketch the origins, objectives and activities of the network.

ESSI was founded as a member-association in 2011, following the first global conference on social innovation and the Vienna Declaration on Social Innovation. In its introduction the declaration stipulates:

“The tracks of international research on innovation demonstrate that the technology-oriented paradigm – shaped by the industrial society – does not cover the broad range of innovations indispensable in the transition from an industrial to a knowledge and services-based society: Such fundamental societal changes require the inclusion of social innovations in a paradigm shift of the innovation system.” Based on this assertion, the European School of Social Innovation was formed to assist and enhance a holistic concept of innovation: “The predominant economic values of innovations in business and technology, revaluated by accounts on their social dimensions regarding origins and impact, shall become associated with societal values of social innovations in public, business and civil society sectors.”

ESSI acts as an umbrella organisation that stimulates and supports events, cooperation, projects and networks among its members. As a “School of Thought,” it shapes concepts and activities in the field of social innovation and strengthens the position of individual members and organisations.

According to §2 of its Statutes, ESSI aims to strengthen international research, education, and consulting on social innovation; establish a scientific basis for comparative international studies; highlight Europe’s specific historical and welfare-state contexts while fostering global cooperation; support junior researchers and relevant qualifications; and promote knowledge transfer across disciplines, between science and practice, and throughout all sectors of society.

The organisation’s activities are financed by currently 14 institutional members, including universities, research institutes, and consultancies. In addition to its member organisations, the ESSI community counts more than 60 individual members from various countries who are actively involved in research, education and training, or the practical application and promotion of social innovation across societal sector.

ESSI Activities

ESSI’s activities include international conferences, summerschools, webinars and publications.

Conferences and Living Labs

Together with its partner organisations, ESSI regularly supports international conferences relevant for the social innovation community. This support is intended to strengthen international research networks on social innovation and to create opportunities for new joint research activities. 

EuSPRI-AnnualConference – Shaping societal futures with Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policies – European Forum for Studies of Policies for Research and Innovation (Dortmund 2025)

Open Living Lab Days: Living Labs for an Era of Transitions – How Human-Centric Innovation is Changing Our Lives (Barcelona 2023)

BEYOND 4.0 Scientific Conference – Inclusive Futures for Europe BEYOND Industrie4.0 and Digital Disruption (Sofia 2021)

Social Innovation and Socio-Digital Transformation – Towards a Comprehensive Innovation Policy (Dortmund 2019)

Social Innovation – Research and Policy of the Future – Towards a Comprehensive Innovation Policy (Brussels 2017)

Pathways for Social Change (Vienna 2015)

Social Frontiers – The Next Edge of Social Innovation Research (London 2013)

Challenge Social Innovation (Vienna 2011)

Webinars

Webinars constitute a core activity of ESSI, reflecting the expertise and the varying practice fields of its members. Recent webinars covered diverse topics:

ESSI Webinar: Social Innovation in European Programmes (November 2025)

The European Union has been a pioneer in advancing social innovation by improving the conditions for its development and spread. Major programmes such as Horizon (including EU missions), the ESF and EaSI, as well as COST networks, have supported both research and practical implementation. These efforts have helped popularize new innovation concepts—such as Industry 5.0 and Living Labs—and fostered strong, cross-sector communities. International experts analyzed key EU programmes and practice areas, offering an in-depth overview for discussion.

ESSI Webinar: Social Innovations in/with/for the welfare state in rural areas (June 2025)

This ESSI webinar explored a range of social innovations in European welfare states responding to the challenges of demographic change, globalisation, rural development and regional inequality, and ensuring mental health at work.

ESSI Webinar: Social innovations for more spatial justice (February 2024)

After a brief moderation, participants received conceptual and theoretical input on societal innovativeness, followed by practical examples from socially oriented disaster-relief initiatives. These contributions sparked a lively and engaged discussion among attendees.

ESSI Webinar: Social Innovation as an Emerging Scientific Field (November 2024)

Marking the publication of the ‘Encyclopedia of Social Innovation’ (edited by Jürgen Howaldt and Christoph Kaletka), this webinar provided an overview of current discussions and described future challenges for science. 

Publications

ESSI promotes central publications by initiating and contributing content to major debates in the field. Notable publications associated with ESSI include the Atlas of Social Innovation, the Research Agenda for Social Innovation and the Encyclopedia of Social Innovation. ESSI members are also actively involved in publishing research findings in scientific journals, anthologies and project reports, and they contribute to practice-oriented publications such as policy briefs.

To illustrate the benefits of ESSI from the perspective of its members, the team “Wissenschaft” (academia) of the SIGU platform asked two representatives of institutional founding members (Dr. Elisabeth Unterfrauner from the Centre of Social Innovation (ZSI) in Vienna and Antonius Schröder from the Social Science Center Dortmund (sfs)/TU Dortmund University) to give brief statements on two questions.

Why does your organisation support the European School of Social Innovation?

The Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) is a founding member of the European School of Social Innovation (ESSI), and the association is hosted at ZSI in Vienna. Social innovation has been at the core of ZSI’s mission since its establishment in 1990 and is explicitly reflected in the organisation’s name. ZSI has a long-standing track record in both research and practice in the field of social innovation at European and international levels.
ZSI considers social innovation to be strategically important and contributes to its advancement through international exchange and collaboration. ESSI offers a unique platform for dialogue and mutual learning among scholars and practitioners from around the world, fostering discussion on emerging trends, research findings, and practical experiences in social innovation.
ESSI is also a key instrument for supporting the next generation of social innovation researchers and practitioners. Through webinars, conference announcements, and knowledge-sharing activities, ESSI helps build capacity, strengthen networks, and connect early-career researchers to established experts in the field. For ZSI, ESSI represents an essential infrastructure for community-building, visibility, and continuous learning in social innovation.

Dr. Elisabeth Unterfrauner (ZSI)

TU Dortmund University is one of the founders of ESSI. Beginning with the Vienna Conference in 2011, which marked the start of systematic European research on social innovation, the European School of Social Innovation was established as a think tank and school of thought supporting prominent European institutions and researchers. This cooperation led to the international large-scale project SI-DRIVE (Social Innovation: Driving Force of Social Change), setting the scientific ground for further social innovation activities – where we had the opportunity to map and analyse more than 1,000 examples of social innovation initiatives worldwide from various policy fields. Since then, ESSI has developed into an important network for us, giving us the opportunity for regular knowledge exchange between social innovation professionals from both academia and practice.

Antonius Schröder (sfs)

What is the added value for the European Social Innovation Community?

ESSI brings together a diverse community of stakeholders with a shared interest in social innovation, including researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and intermediary organisations. By bridging academia, policy, and practice, ESSI creates a vibrant space for cross-sectoral exchange, learning, and collaboration.
The added value of ESSI lies in its role as a hub for knowledge exchange and networking. It facilitates the dissemination of research insights, highlights emerging initiatives, and supports collective reflection on challenges and opportunities in the field. Through its activities, ESSI strengthens the coherence and visibility of the European social innovation ecosystem and promotes a shared understanding of concepts, methods, and impacts.
Overall, ESSI contributes to building a connected and informed community that is better equipped to advance social innovation in Europe and beyond.

Dr. Elisabeth Unterfrauner (ZSI)

The clear added value of ESSI for the European and international social innovation community is to bring together actors in the field and facilitating continuous exchange on recent developments. Through its members, ESSI provides consultation to European Programmes and activities (such as Processes for Planet under Horizon Europe), and is dedicated to integrating Social Innovation in national programmes (such as the German High-Tech Strategy). Of particular importance to us are the webinars, in which renowned scholars present the latest findings from a wide range of topics related to social innovation and discuss them with ESSI members and other interested parties.

Antonius Schröder (sfs)