In Romania, social innovation and social economy are relatively new concepts, mainly embedded in NGO sector and in civil society. Social innovations are new ideas or ways of working that meet social needs more effectively than existing traditional approaches and they are carried out in Romania by social economy organizations such as associations, foundations, credit unions, and cooperatives. They address pressing concerns around child care, social services, work integration of disabled people, rural community development, formal and nonformal education, waste management, health-care services and more.

Social innovation is time and context specific. That means it can mean different things in different context. What might not seem innovative in one country, may be ground breaking in another. The political and cultural background is important to understand. There are also a wide variety of organisations involved in this field, each have different perspectives.  So, the purpose of this page is to demonstrate a variety of views on what social innovation means to different kinds of organisations in Romania.