What is Digital Social Innovation (DSI)?
DSI can be defined as “a type of collaborative innovation in which innovators, users and communities co-create knowledge and solutions for a wide range of social needs and at a scale that was unimaginable before the rise of the Internet”. Definition provided by the Digital Social Innovation project.
How does CHEST support DSI?
CHEST is a 33 month Collaborative project co-financed with support from the European Commission through Framework Programme 7. The aim of the project is simple. To support the rapidly growing European community of technology and social entrepreneurs to advance ideas that focus on the use of digital technologies (such as open data, open knowledge, open hardware, and open networks) to deliver solutions to key societal challenges. The primary mechanisms to achieve this within CHEST are:
- The provision of seed finance (up to €2.5M awarded) through three open funding calls which were delivered in 2014.
- The creation of a community of key stakeholder groups from within Europe’s DSI community.
- The development of a dedicated Community Platform mog.eng.it/chestcommunity/ that is available to anyone with an interest in DSI. The platform will:
- Provide regular updates regarding the projects supported under the 3 open calls with the facility for anyone to provide comments and recommendations.
- A blog style meeting place to enable the community to exchange ideas and opinions relating to DSI providing a mechanism to encourage collaborative project and idea development, the sharing of learning and the exchange of best practice.
- Provide links to key support networks, incubators and financiers that exist within the EU.
- Enable the exchange feedback on the CHEST project.
Who is CHEST relevant for?
…You as a Social Innovator
CHEST is relevant for anyone within the DSI community from innovators and users through to communities and support networks. It is particularly relevant for:
- Social entrepreneurs/enterprise (students, business, academics, research organisations, citizens).
- Grass Roots Organisations and Community Networks.
- Social sector experts and multipliers (politicians, NGO management, foundations, universities, representatives from related EU projects and networks).
- Charities and foundations.
- Entrepreneurship hubs, start-up and tech centre
Why should you join the CHEST Community?
- To help advance your ideas and to support the ideas of others.
- To make connections that will lead to the creation of new knowledge and solutions.
- The opportunity to connect to other social innovators from across the EU to collaboratively develop projects, share learning and exchange best practice.
- To gain access to potential support networks for DSI including incubators and financiers .
- As an emerging field, to better understand what is meant by DSI and to become part of this rapidly growing network.
- To experience and to comment on real case studies from the projects already supported within the CHEST project.