Edited by Torino Social Impact

Policy & Practice

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04 October 2022

SocialTechEU has been launched the first European social economy cluster consortium

torino social impact

Last year the European Commission included the social economy clusters among the industrial pillars for the economic recovery, providing financial support to those organizations able to promote social enterprises and start-up. 

In this framework a Europe-wide consortium of social economy organizations led by Torino Social Impact in collaboration with the Giacomo Brodolini Foundation was chosen by the European Commission to give life to two years of activity, with the aim of increasing resilience and the ability to innovation, competitiveness and sustainability of social economy ecosystems and social economy companies.

The aim of the project is to identify and develop innovative solutions identified through shared processes that will involve research and industry actors and value chains at local, national and European level.

The project is entitled SocialTech4EU and provides for new internet-enabled and high-tech business models, resorting to the use of funding sources suitable for the social sphere, such as crowdfunding and impact investing. The first equity-free funding plan will be launched shortly.

The ambition is to contribute to the development of the social economy as a resilience factor for the entire European economy, strengthening it thanks to the processes made possible by the digital transition in terms of process and product innovation and therefore capable of inspiring systemic changes also in traditional production sectors.

The consortium consists of six acknowledged European social economy organizations: Torino Social Impact represented by Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini (consortium leader, Italy), Alaturi de Voi Romania Foundation (ADV Romania), Coompanion Örebro (Sweden), Silicon Vilstal (Germany), Asociacion Investigacion , Desarollo and Innovacion en Aragon IDIA (Spain), European network of social integration enterprise ENSIE (Belgium / EU).

The proposal is in line with the European Action Plan in support of the social economy that the European Commission adopted in December 2021. With the action plan, the Commission undertakes to promote measures aimed at creating the conditions to encourage full implementation of the potential of the social economy as an engine for a fairer economy and for sustainable and inclusive growth.

The development of the Action Plan was an articulated path that involved European stakeholders at all levels and Torino Social Impact actively participated in the whole process. This project therefore fits coherently into the strategy that Torino Social Impact pursues at a European level to affirm the territory as at the forefront of the social economy.