Forms of membership and membership criteria are:

1. There are three forms of membership: Regular Members, Associate Members, and Partners.

2. Regular Members may be physical or legal persons. Associate Members and Partners must manifest a separate legal entity (legal person or legal non-incorporated partnership).

a) Physical persons serving as Regular Members (“individual members”) are persons who carry out research, teaching and consulting activities in the interest of the ESSI association, and are qualified to do so through training and professional experience, and thereby or by means of other services contribute directly to the fulfilment of the association’s purpose.

b) Legal persons serving as Regular Members (“institutional members”) are institutions that enable or fund research, provide teaching and consulting services through the use of their own resources or other resources or other means, and thereby contribute directly to the fulfilment of the association’s purpose.

c) Associate Members are organizations vested with legal capacity that pursue a similar purpose to those pursued by the ESSI association, are prepared to engage in temporary or permanent cooperation, and, thus, on the basis of consortium agreements indirectly contribute to the achievement of the association’s purpose through joint project work and comparable agreements.

d) Partners are public or private organizations (commercial or non-governmental) that have an interest in the application or introduction of social innovations within their field and indirectly contribute to the achievement of the association’s purposes, either as long-term providers of funding or as partners in the implementation of social innovation.

In short: The fundamental Membership criterion is your individual or your organization’s involvement in social innovation research, education or practice.