EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND Innovation and mainstreaming: Relevance To meet the Lisbon targets: Europe has to develop a knowledge based economy and to improve the effectiveness of public interventions Reforms are essential to respond to rapidly changing policy environments Each Member State has to implement reforms of employment and social inclusion policy and delivery Social innovation can support reform of employment and social inclusion policy and delivery

EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND Innovation and mainstreaming: Value Added Innovation can: Lead to improvements in current policy and practice Address potential changes in an unbiased way Fill gaps through new policy development Avoid expensive policy development through experimenting and testing on a small-scale Be implemented on a wider scale with less risk and resources

EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND To be successful, social innovation must: Address real policy needs Demonstrate advantages over existing policy/practice Have mechanisms in place to exchange and transfer good practice

EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND Need for broad definition of innovation Problem identification Development, experimentation and testing validation Transfer, training

EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND Need for focus, such as: New linkages beween organisations and processes (e.g. education and entrepreneurship) Adapting economic sectors (e.g care services) ) Improving quality of work (work organisation )

EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND Main building blocks of innovation support Linking themes for innovation to problems and needs addressed in the programme, and linked to the Lisbon reform agenda Ensuring user orientation at programme and project level Promoting a fine-tuned chain of activities Validating innovative results through peer and user review Establishing support mechanisms and structures to facilitate transfer and integration of suitable, feasible, and acceptable results

EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND Identifying themes for innovation Assessment of EQUAL themes and results Policy needs defined in the reform agenda and the NSRF (= economic modernisation, and reform of policies and delivery systems) Shared problem analysis with key stakeholders Enable transnational learning by taking into account priority themes of other Member States Allow for emerging issues

EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND Lessons learned from dutch taskforce on social innovation Start with small innovative experiments Assess and build upon results of the second round of EQUAL Consider modulated aid intensity or contracts Flexible implementation provisions that allow to stimulate experimention while ensuring sound management 4 barriers to overcome: dont know how, cant do (regulation/finance), wont do (no will to innovate) do not dare to do (taking risks)