SEVERE, universities as promoters of social entrepreneurship

Glasgow Caledonian University (project leader), Dublin City University, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, PIN S.c.r.l – Servizi didattici e scientifici per l’Università di Firenze, Universidade de Aveiro, Groupe SUP de CO Montpellier

The major crises that have marked recent years, not least the economic crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have had an impact on the way we work. SEVERE was conceived to promote a different approach to working life that is able to answer to the growing demand for environmentally and socially sustainable forms of international collaboration. In this context, the project aims at fostering an enabling ecosystem for social innovation in which universities can re-interpret their role as promoters of social entrepreneurship.

In particular, SEVERE aims at developing a deeper awareness within universities in order to prepare students for direct community action through digital means. Project partners will also create a suite of online tools housed within a virtual collaboration space that will help students and social enterprises to collaborate and create joint ventures remotely. To validate the tools, the project aims at incubating 12 social innovation projects created by students in six different countries. Partners and students will also establish a platform for virtual internships whereby students will be able to work remotely for social enterprises and with community groups on  specific projects. And finally, SEVERE aims at creating and promoting a SEVERE network open to promote digital social innovation.

The SEVERE project aims to develop a transnational programme for nurturing entrepreneurial ind-sets and skills in order to encourage active citizenship and social entrepreneurship.

YSBCUF analyzed stakeholders’ experiences in fostering remote collaborative work and collaborated on the “Remote Working Handbook for Social Innovation.” Data for the analysis were collected through an online questionnaire disseminated nationwide in Italy to Third Sector entities and social enterprises between October 2020 and January 2021. In fact, the questionnaire was intended to identify best practices in remodeling services of Third Sector Entities and social enterprises in times of closure, a closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Handbook, therefore, aims to provide a timely and innovative response by offering real solutions for remote work and virtual collaboration especially for the social innovation ecosystem. Thanks to the Handbook, students involved in the project will be able to learn more about the case studies analyzed and find a path that will help them in the process of creating social enterprises, from the ideation and design thinking stage, through business plan writing to innovative communication procedures and dissemination and impact measurement techniques.

In parallel with the Handbook, the YSBCUF contributed to the E-book for Social Innovation Projects, which compiles experiences from the SEVERE project. This resource aims to provide the tools, based on the reflections and good practices that emerged from the SEVERE project, to enable organizations that wish to do so to replicate project activities.

YSBCUF also accompanied and mentored students from the University of Florence during the training. The training included several international meetings and shared work with students from partner universities remotely. The training was divided into four key moments:

1. Preparation programme, first meeting to provide participants with a general introduction to the project and raise awareness of different dimensions of social innovation, project management, and remote collaboration techniques.
2. Summer School in Dublin (September 2021) first meeting of student participants from the 6 partner universities. Distance collaboration projects took shape during this meeting. The Summer School was divided into ideation workshops to help students formulate their projects and further development of distance working techniques.
3. Winter School in Montpellier (March 2022) was an opportunity for representatives from each group of students to show their progress and activities carried out.
4. Pitching Workhop in Prato organized by the YSBCUF (September 2022), was an operational meeting designed to strengthen students’ ability to effectively present (pitch) their project to others but especially to potential investors.

Visit more on: severe-eu.org

E-book for Social Innovation Projects

Handbook of remote working for social innovators

The project SEVERE is co-funded by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Commission