DCU Social Innovation Hackathon supported by Dublin City Council to contribute to new EU initiative
Feedback will assist in the development of a new EU Social Economy Canvas
The DCU Social Innovation Hackathon series has received a major boost with support from Dublin City Council recently announced providing DCU students with a unique opportunity to contribute to the development of a new EU initiative- the Social Economy Canvas.
It comes as part of DCC’s efforts to aid social enterprise and innovation development through involvement in the European Commission’s - European Social Economy Regions (ESER) 2020 project.
As part of the ESER project, the development and piloting of a new Social Economy (SE) Canvas which will provide a framework to improve the design, development and scaling-up of socially and environmentally responsible economic activities is now underway.
The SE Canvas has now been made available by the European Commission for students to utilise and test as part of the hackathon series, where individuals from multiple sectors will work together on short-term projects.
The development will provide DCU students with a unique opportunity to provide direct feedback regarding the further development of the SE Canvas which will also be tested at various events throughout Europe.
The DCU Social Innovation Hackathon series is being run by DCU Business School with support from sponsors such as Irish Life Health and Deloitte.
Speaking about the announcement Dr Roisin Lyons, Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at DCU said:
"We are thrilled that we are given the chance to engage with this tool at our social innovation hackathons. It is a great opportunity for our students to be part of an engaging hackathon, while also seeing how initiatives at policy level, can be used to frame and support social enterprises.
Major thanks to Norman Thompson and Dublin City Council for bringing us on board."
Norman Thompson, Economic Development Research, Dublin City Council said:
"We are delighted to support the existing DCU Social Innovation Hackathon which will help inspire the next generation of social innovators, promote the Dublin regional social economy and enhance the enterprise eco-system. We look forward to hearing the students' ideas on how to address important social, environmental and economic challenges."
During the course of the year Dublin City Council will also be organising, supporting and collaborating with multiple stakeholders to host an event series to showcase, enhance and develop the regional social economy and social enterprise ecosystem.
The purpose of this is to build networks of Social Economy and Social Enterprise stakeholders, encourage collaboration and to raise awareness about the Social Economy at regional and local level.