Interview with the Mayor of Gdansk Pawel Adamowicz and Magdalena Skiba – coordinator Boosting Social Innovation, interviewed by Peter Wolkowinsky, lead expert of Boostino network
Boostinno is a new URBACT network coordinated by the city of Gdansk, which has taken on the challenge to try to identify a Pan European Model of social innovation[1]. This model will be based on the experience of the initial partner cities Paris (FR), Milan (IT), Turin (IT) and Braga (PT) working together with all the partners of the network which are in addition Strasbourg (Fr), Skane county (S), Baia Mare (RO), Barcelona Activa (S) and Wroclaw (Pl). It will attempt to foster the social innovation momentum in European local authorities; more specifically by working on the way in which citizens become a central actor in local policies. The network will also work on innovative ways of finance social innovation.
[1] Concept coined by Fabrizio Barbiero from Turin municipality.
Boostinno’s core idea came from four partners of the previous URBACT network My Generation @ Work[1], and from the experience of its partner cities. In The Lead Partner city, the Mayor of Gdansk, Pawel Adamowicz, is basing his city’s development strategy on its citizens. They are central to all actions and engaged through participative policy making. ‘Everything is being done to achieve open governance, says Magdalena Skiba, coordinator of the Boostinno Network. We are also working on horizontal coordination of different sectors, in order to develop a truly integrated policy at the city level’.
This participative approach will be shared among partner cities and consolidated in the BoostINNO network. Research on the Quadruple Helix, in which the traditional development partners: knowledge producing institutions, public and private sectors, are complemented by the creative citizen, who can be both initiating and using social innovation.
The project will develop and strengthen cooperation inside administrations, with citizens and at the transnational level.
The network will address some of the following questions:
- how can social innovation good prototype be scaled up?
- what is the level of controlable risk?
- what should be the level of implication of the local authority, not to stifle social innovation, but support it?
- what kind of partners are absolutely neccessary for the success of social innovation?
- what sort of ecosystem (links between institutions, knowledge centres, companies and citizens) is optimal for social innovation to work?
- what are the other success factors, which are a key for the Pan European Model of Social Innovation?
Social innovation is both a chance and a challenge.
Using the URBACT method, BoostINNO organised a participative kick off meeting, which was held in Gdansk from the 8-10 November 2015, and a second one in Turin 17-19 February in which all the participating cities took place. The potential of the network to identify a model for social innovation in European cities will depend on how and when mutual knowledge of the partners can be reinforced. An initial questionnaire has been sent out to all members of the network, in order to build a common understanding, to get to know one another and to develop a vision of the future of the network.
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[1] Maribor, Turin, Braga and Gdansk.