CERUSI

The main objective of the CERUSI project is to support social innovators and entrepreneurs in developing social innovation in rural areas and peripheral CE regions.

CERUSI builds on tools developed in other EU projects, i.e. Social(i)Makers, SENTINEL and LiveRuR, focused on social innovation and social entrepreneurship. Knowledge and experience from these projects will help rural regions to capitalise on their potential and create socially inclusive regional development.

Tools

The CERUSI project will develop different tools that help local actors to develop and start social innovation and social entrepreneurship projects in rural and peripheral regions.

The RSI Toolbox will offer a collection of methods, approaches and concepts of how to enable citizens, entrepreneurs, policy makers, regional development actors, and financiers to enhance skills and capacities for rural social innovation and entrepreneurship projects.

The RSI Skyrocket Platform, hosting the the RSI Design Academy, creates an online space where social innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers as well as interested citizens can not only meet, point out local social challenges and discuss ideas to tackle these with a transnational community, but also acquire the necessary skills and competences via various training modules on issues relevant for designing a social innovation.

The Skryocket Platform serves alsoa space dedicated to public entities looking for alternatives to traditional social services as well as forinvestors investing their capital  in the area of social impact.

The Transnational RSI Caravan Cookbook provides a clear guideline for setting up and implementing an RSI_Lab Caravan, encompassing a diverse set of methodological approaches and instruments in order to replicate and scale-up the RSI Lab Caravan in other regions.

Finalisation date: 01.2021

Training

Based on the “Skyrocket Platform”, an online space created in the Interreg Central Europe project “Social(i)Makers", the project will offer online training modules – RSI_Academy – and will connect innovators, social entrepreneurs, policy makers, investors and the broader public in topics like social, circular and sustainable business models, impact assessment and the use of creativity and technology for social innovation.

It will be a direct contribution to improving skills and entrepreneurial attitudes of social innovators and potential social entrepreneurship start-ups. The enriched training package will be translated into seven languages to make it available to potential social entrepreneurs whose access to training is limited.

Finalisation date: 02.2021

Pilot Actions

The pilot actions will take the form of RSI_Lab Caravans, creating a real-life social innovation environment where idea harvesting, ideating, prototyping, matchmaking and pitching of social innovation and entrepreneurship ideas takes place. The pilots serve as a temporary intermediary framework bringing local social capital together and connecting it to transnational knowledge resources sparking regional development in peripheral and disadvantaged regions. The target groups involved in the caravans are citizens, social innovators & entrepreneurs, educational/training centres & schools, local/regional development agencies, business support organisations, and policy makers.

Seven pilot Lab Caravans are to be implemented in the participating regions, proofing the validity and successfulness of the developed concept.

Finalisation date: 08.2021

Strategies and Action Plans

Policy makers, regional development agencies and public authorities will be involved in developing the RSI strategy, offering a common vision on how to foster social innovation and social entrepreneurship in rural areas. It will build on the tools and pilot experiences from the CERUSI project to spark regional development. The strategy will be accompanied by the formation of a Rural Social Innovation Partnership, a low threshold, high impact network that connects actors from rural and peripheral regions in CE.

The partnership will develop 7 local RSI_Action Plans to promote the use and replication of tested and validated regional social innovation methods like the RSI Skyrocket platform. They will provide clear and streamlined objectives detailing how to use the RSI Skyrocket platform and the RSI Lab Caravan in order to create rural social innovation support eco-systems fostering social innovation and social entrepreneurship.

Finalisation date: 01.2022