The Canadian Forum for Social Innovation aims to advance Canada’s innovation agenda by creating alignment and exploring key actions on policies and practices that build capacity for innovation across all zones of impact: social, cultural, environmental and economic.
As a social learning exercise, the Forum is designed to facilitate cross-sectoral conversations around priority actions to bolster Canada’s innovation ecosystem.
In 2024 Canadian the Canadian Forum for Social Innovation led a pan-Canadian, multi-phase bilingual back-casting exercise that spanned consultations with community funders, higher education leaders as well as social and public sector policy- and decison-makers in Toronto, Ottawa/Wakfield, Montréal, and Calgary.
In 2040, Canada’s innovation strategy is intentionally serving communities, and policies are in place across the ecosystem that build the knowledge, talent and infrastructure to equally support social, cultural, environmental and economic prosperity across all zones of impact: social, economic, political and systemic.
The vision we proposed for deliberation at the second edition of the Canadian Forum for Social Innovation on 11-12 June 2024 at the University of Montreal was buttressed by 53 milestones, around 3 themes: policy, talent and connectivity.
Key Takeways
Reassessing Canada’s Current Innovation Strategy
The report portrays stakeholder perceptions and insights on the outcomes of Canada’s current innovation strategy, which is perceived to be fragmented, overly focused on traditional models of commercialization and economic growth that are not equipped to deal with complexity and systemic challenges.
Rethinking Talent Development
The report provides evidence that participants in the social innovation ecosystem are calling for a shift in how we define and develop talent for innovation.
Empowering Communities
The report emphasizes the expectation that communities be empowered to contribute to innovation by building capacity beyond the economic sectors, and recognize the value of diverse knowledge systems, including Indigenous ways of knowing.
Scaling Connectivity
The report acknowledges the difficulty of implementing a national innovation ecosystem given Canada’s size and diversity, suggesting that place-based approaches to innovation governance might be more effective.
Stimulating Social Innovation.
The report documents the crucial role of social innovation in tackling complex societal issues and creating a more equitable and sustainable future.
This report summarizes the key learnings. We propose a brief exposé of the main takeaways of the plenary roundtable discussions. We also present an analysis of the data collected during workshops, and describe our methodology.