Competence Centre
for Social Innovation in
the European Social Fund

On behalf of the Swedish ESF Council, Forum for Social Innovation Sweden is the Competence Centre for Social Innovation in the European Social Fund (ESF) in the ESF+ programming period 2021-2027. As a competence centre, we promote effective, sustainable and value-creating social innovations on working life-related social challenges, through knowledge, methods and meeting places. The mission is carried out in collaboration with the National Association of Coordination Agencies and the Partnership for Social Innovation in Region Örebro County.

The Competence Centre provides support to ESF-funded projects in ESF Programme Area E (social innovation), the Swedish ESF Council and other key actors. We also work to strengthen the social innovation ecosystem in Sweden – that is, the actors and factors that affect the opportunities to develop and realise innovative solutions to societal challenges.

We support and exchange knowledge on social innovation with and between ESF-funded projects in ESF Programme Area E (social innovation). We also work on learning, evaluation, analysis and dissemination of social innovations, as well as strengthening social innovation in the implementation of ESF+ in dialogue with the Swedish ESF Council.. Finally, we promote the social innovation ecosystem in Sweden.

As Competence Centre, we carry out a variety of activities, ranging from process-supporting coalitions for co-creation with various actors in ESF-funded projects, to individual coaching of projects, national and transnational knowledge exchanges, meetings and an annual learning conference. We conduct cluster evaluations, a yearly analysis report and also develop knowledge materials, new models and tools for learning, evaluation and analysis.

The purpose of the Competence Centre is to:

support the development of effective, sustainable and value-creating social innovations
contribute to aggregated learning on innovative solutions to labour market challenges
disseminate innovative solutions to policy and practice
contribute to learning about approaches that promote socially innovative solutions among funders and,
foster the social innovation ecosystem

Support actions organised by the Competence Centre

Support and learning
exchange for projects

To strengthen social innovation in ESF-funded projects, stakeholders need the opportunity to learn more about this area together. The purpose of this support action is to describe and strengthen the projects’ practical development of social innovations, with a focus on the causality of the societal challenge, cross-sectoral collaboration/co-creation, target group participation, the ecosystem of the projects/societal challenge, and sustainable results and effects. The aim is also to create synergies in the dissemination of the projects’ social innovations into practice and policy, and to link projects at national and European level.

Strengthening social innovation in ESF+

The Competence Centre works in dialogue with the Swedish ESF–Council on approaches to strengthen social innovation in the implementation of ESF+, specifically Program Area E, social innovation. This is done through the production of knowledge materials, learning exchanges and dialogue on social innovation.

Supporting the social
innovation ecosystem

To improve the conditions for the initiation, establishment and integration of social innovations, the Swedish ecosystem needs to be strengthened – i.e. the actors and factors that affect the opportunities to develop and realise innovative solutions to societal challenges. The Competence Centre is working to strengthen the ecosystem through a number of different initiatives.

Analysis and learning
for scaling and policy impact

To strengthen social innovation in the implementation of ESF+, the European Social Fund’s Competence Centre for Social Innovation carries out analyses and cluster evaluations of projects and programme interventions. The aim is to create a knowledge base that can be used to strengthen innovation processes, create synergies between different actors and projects, and disseminate and scale up working solutions.

Models and tools for social innovation

The Competence Centre develops and uses different models and tools to support social innovation. Some examples are The social innovation process and Orientation map for social change.

Transnational collaborations

BIRDS is a transnational collaboration project between the National Competence Centres for Social Innovation of France, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. The aim is to professionalise these National Competence Centres and build capacity towards social innovation stakeholders, by working on strengthening regional ecosystems, impact evaluation, upscaling and funding of social innovation. BIRDS is co-funded by the European Union through the Social Innovation+ Initiative, as part of five transnational consortia from 2024 to 2027.

Building Capacity for a Sustainable Society (BuiCaSuS) was a 2021-2023 EU project that aimed to promote transnational cooperation and mutual learning to establish or consolidate national centres of excellence for social innovation, in line with the current and future programmatic activities of the European Social Fund and the EaSI programme. Seven partners from four European countries participated in BuiCaSuS.

Regional collaboration on societal challenges – a mapping of examples of long-term organisation (2024)

This report presents a mapping of Swedish and international examples of regional collaboration on societal challenges. The aim is to gather and disseminate knowledge and experience as inspiration for further development of support structures for social innovation.