Introduction to the conference The idea and its implementation Josef Hochgerner Centre for Social Innovation, Vienna

Thank you: Welcome, speakers and supporting organisations -European Commission / NET4SOCIETY -Austrian Ministry for Science and Research (BMWF) -Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -City of Vienna (Stadt Wien) -University of Technology, Dortmund (TUDO) 370 Participants from 54 countries of all continents Organisers -ZSI, Zentrum für Soziale Innovation – Centre for Social Innovation -sfs, Sozialforschungsstelle – Central Scientific Institute of TUDO -NET4SOCIETY, Network of National Contact Points for Socio- economic Sciences and Humanities (SSH) -The Steering Committee, Chairs, Speakers, and Hallamasch

The idea of this conference  Expectations in social innovations seem to increase boundless  At the same time scientific comprehension and methods of identification, development and measuring the impact of social innovations still fall short to meet such prospect  In general, innovation requires sound scientific foundations – more than ever in the globalised knowledge society of the 21st century  In order to improve adequate scientific concepts and methodologies concerning social innovations in a wide array of societal challenges, our aim was to assemble the leading brains in social innovation  The core objective is to strengthen social sciences and research pertaining to social innovation, focusing on the provision of knowledge applicable to change social practices – i.e. to generate social innovation  CSI-2011 shall establish research topics, research networks, and a firm concept of social innovation, leading to equal footing of social innovation compared to the prevalent notion of innovation in the corporate sector

Why „CSI Vienna“ ?  Preceding ICICI conferences since 2008  Social innovation in Austria –The welfare state –Innovation centres and business parks in the 1980s –The Centre for Social Innovation, 1990 –The annual Social Innovation Award „SozialMarie“ since 2005 –  Cultural and scientific heritage: Vienna and Joseph A. Schumpeter ( )

„Schumpeter adopts social innovation“... a video combining facts and fiction: Some key quotations from what Schumpeter wrote about innovation, starting 1911, and assumptions of what he might tell us now, aged 128, on social innovation.