Francesco Profumo, the Italian Minister of Education, University, and Research, took to a public event last Thursday in Rome to present and describe the country’s very first Social Innovation Agenda.
The Ministry also remarked its devotion to social innovation in Italy, by announcing that over a year of work, it has launched 97 social innovation projects costing €75 million. The projects involve 430 young innovators with an average age of 27 years. Moreover, the Ministry said that it has allocated an additional €7 million for the initiative Startup which is dedicated to social innovation.
The main focus of the meeting was to discuss the newly released La Via Italiana alla Social Innovation Agenda (in Italian) which outlines the direction, actions, and objectives for social innovation in Italy.
The Agenda was put together beginning a year ago with the help of organizations with Italian and international experiences, such as Nesta UK. The contributions and consultation of experts helped identify five areas of proposed intervention for nurturing social innovation.
These include public policy; finance mechanisms for social innovation, such as Social Impact Bonds, social stock exchanges, venture capital and social entrepreneurship funds, and equity-based crowdfunding; measurement and impact of social innovation; methods to spark social innovation, such as the Startup scheme, launching challenges for social innovation, encouraging public-private sector partnerships, and leveraging crowdsourcing; and accelerating social innovation.
Reaction of the Agenda during the event was one of excitement and joy. Fabrizio Cobis, Director of the Ministry of Education and Innovation, who had spent the year working on the Agenda said that “it was a life journey that changed his view and erased the distinctions between citizens and public administration”.
“I must confess that for once in my life I agreed with the vision of an Italian politician,” said Euclid Network’s Filippo Addarii. “Bravo Minister!”
“It was an immense pleasure to make my contribution to the very first Social Innovation Agenda of the Italian Government. I really hope that the next government will continue the work started by the Minister Profumo and his advisors,” said Nesta’s Marco Zappalorto.
By Melissa Ip
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