From 22 September to 24 September, the European Commission invites stakeholders from policymaking and research as well as entrepreneurs and citizens to participate at the European Research and Innovation Days 2020. The virtual event will feature two sessions focussed on social innovation. ESSI’s managing director Antonius Schröder will be rapporteur in the second session on Co-Design for the strategic orientation on circularity. Individual member Christoph Kaletka from TU Dortmund will also be engaged in the first session and Flor Avelino from ESSI’ institutional member DRIFT will also be rapporteur in the second session:

First session:

22/09 from 1400 to 1500 hours (Hub 1: Policy): Workshop – “Social Innovation: A grassroots strategy and enabler of R&I policies in the European Research Area” Speakers: Ms Signe Ratso, Deputy Director General, European Commission, Research and Innovation Directorate General; Dr. Maria Graça de Carvalho, Member of the European Parliament; Mr Joe O’Brien, Irish Minister of State for Community Development and Charities at the Department of Rural and Community Development; Mr Filippo Addarii, Co-Founder and CEO of Plus Value Group, Co-Founder and Equity partner of Impact Alliance Holding. The session will focus on how European and national public administrations can best spread and deepen social innovation.

Second session:

24/09 from 1100 to 1200 hours (Hub 4): Workshop - Co-design Session “Increasing the Impact of EU R&I with Social Innovation” Speakers: Ms Signe Ratso, Deputy Director General, European Commission, Research and Innovation Directorate General; Dr Olivier de Schutter, Professor, UCLouvain (Belgium) & Science Po Paris (France). Four breakout groups will examine the potential of social innovation to increase the impact of Horizon Europe along its four strategic orientations:

1. “Resilience” breakout group: How can social innovation contribute to strengthening the EU’s autonomy in certain strategic sectors and value chains? (Rapporteur: Ms Madeleine Clarke, Executive Director, Genio-Transforming Social Services, Ireland)

2. “Sustainability” breakout group: How can social innovation contribute to restoring Europe’s ecosystems and biodiversity, and to managing natural resources sustainably? (Rapporteur: Dr Flor Dinis de Araujo Avelino, Senior Researcher & Lecturer, DRIFT, The Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, The Netherlands)

3. “Circularity” breakout group: How can social innovation contribute to the circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy? (Rapporteur: Dr Antonius Schröder, Member of Management Board - European Research Area 3 “Work and Education in Europe,” Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund, Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany)

4. “Inclusiveness” breakout group: How can social innovation contribute to an inclusive and democratic European society? (Rapporteur: Dr Diana MacCallum, Senior Lecturer, Urban and Regional Planning, School of Design and Built Environment, Curtin University, Western Australia)

If you wish to attend, please find more information below:

- If you are interested in attending the EU R&I Days, please register soon because registration will be on “a first come, first serve” basis;

- In addition, please note that the workshop on 22/09 will allow a maximum of 200 participants and the co-design session on 24/09 will allow a maximum of 100 participants. Therefore, if you are interested in participating and contributing to the workshop, the co-design session or both, please register when registration for the workshop and the co-design session open as, again, registration will be on “a first come, first serve” basis;

- Those of you partaking in the co-design session will receive links to join one of the four the breakout groups in the chat box at the appropriate time.