Europos Sąjungos socialinių inovacijų skatinimo politika ir jos įgyvendinima
Social Innovation Promoting Policy and its Implementation in the European Union

Summary/Abstract: Research problem: the paper deals with the following problem questions: In which EU documents and how is the policy of promoting social innovation emphasised? How is the policy of promoting social innovation implemented in the EU? Research subject: EU social innovation promotion policy and its implementation. Research aim: to analyse EU social innovation promoting policy and its implementation. Research methods: Content analysis and generalisation of EU strategic documents, legislation and information materials, case studies of implementation of social innovation. In the European Union, innovation promoting policy is developed through strategic and legal regulation documents adopted in EU institutions. Investments into fundamental research dominate, the importance of application of innovations for the growth of the economy of the country is emphasised, and a broad concept of innovations is applied, encompassing the implementation of innovations in business and public sector. However, innovation promoting policy and its implementation seldom put an emphasis on social innovations as an important part of the general system of innovations; the place and the importance of social innovations for the social environment of the society are given insufficient attention. According to the newest understanding of the European Commission, social innovation is new ideas that meet social needs, create new social relationships and develop new forms of collaboration. These innovations can be products, services or models, which meet unsatisfied social needs in a more efficient way. Social innovation is a means integrating various interested parties for the realisation of social needs. Such understanding of social innovations is closely linked with other concepts, oriented towards meeting social needs, such as social company, social entrepreneurship, social economics, and social policy experimentation. Social innovations are based on the ingenuity of the population, civic society organisations, local communities, institutions and companies. They also offer an opportunity for the public sector and all participants of the market to ensure that products and services correspond not only to the individual but also to collective aspirations. Stimulating innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge society are the main EU policy directions in “Europe 2020” strategy. Social innovations differ from other innovations in that their main aim is to create social change. In comparison with the general concept of innovation, social innovations have an additional motive, which is social mission and social values. The authors of social innovations can come from all layers of society, from public or private sector or from non-governmental organisations. Most often the most valuable sources of new ideas come from collaboration of different sectors. Various groups can make valuable contributions to social innovations: these are businessmen, experts, politicians, representatives of communities and civic society. They can act on different levels: from new ideas and pilot projects to implement them to the formation of the new policy. Social innovations play a major role in EU cohesion policy. The topics of these innovations are oriented towards thematic targets in the five spheres of investment policy: 1) research and development, 2) employment, 3) education, 4) social policy, 5) strengthening administrative abilities.

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