We’ve completed our second project under the Interreg Central Europe program. Read on to learn about our two years of work. At CERUSI, we focused on supporting innovators and social entrepreneurs from rural and peripheral areas to help them create changes leading to sustainable development. Project activities were divided into three stages.
STAGE I – RSI: INNOVATION ACADEMY (online course)
While some of our project partners were developing substantive contributions to the Academy, we and our partnering IT company stepped into the users’ shoes to create an intuitive tool for learning about innovation. At the end of January 2021, we launched the course, available in 7 languages (CZ, DE, EN, IT, PL, SI, SK), which included:
Free access to 5 modules on: Strengthening the potential of rural areas, Identifying local community needs, Business models, Measuring social impact, and the circular economy
Access to tools used in the innovation process
Practical tips
A quiz summarizing the knowledge gained in each module
Confirmation of completion of each module.
Over the past year, 628 people participated in the course.
More information about the individual modules can be found here.
STAGE II – RSI LAB
This was a unique stage of the project, because thanks to Caravan Stops, we learned about the needs of rural residents, and during Lab Modules, we invited them to work together to turn their ideas into action.
During meetings with local communities, which we called #CaravanStops, we managed to visit three regions of Poland, thus:
We met with 79 participants online and offline.
We organized two mining workshops.
We worked with innovators on solutions for the circular economy during three series of #LabModules, workshops conducted using the design thinking method. Next Good Thing supported us throughout the entire process, and together we managed to:
organize 15 meetings, totaling 35 hours of creative work,
conduct individual consultations with 45 innovators,
and the developed circular economy innovations passed the prototyping and testing phase.
STAGE III – DEVELOPMENT OF ACTION PLANS AND STRATEGIES
Finally, Local Policy Forums were held in each partner country. These meetings aimed at developing strategies and action plans for disseminating social innovations in rural areas. The findings were presented at the international Transnational Policy Forum.
Here are the results of the partnership’s project work:
The joy of rural social innovation. A cookbook to make good ideas work
Rural Social Innovation Partnership
The CERUSI project was implemented jointly with nine partners from seven Central European countries:
ZSI – Centre for Social Innovation (project leader) www.zsi.at
Regionalmanagement Burgenland GmbH www.rmb.at
Social Impact GmbH www.socialimpact.eu
Democenter-Sipe Foundation www.democentersipe.it
PRIZMA Foundation for Improvement of Employment Possibilities www.fundacija-prizma.si
EPIC non-profit organization www.epic-org.eu
Cooperation Fund Foundation www.cofund.org.pl
Regional Development Agency of South Bohemia www.rera.cz
Foundation Cassa di Risparmio di Modena www.fondazionedimodena.it
