Social Innovation Ideas and Action Lab
Think Tank @McMaster
Complex societal issues that pose a risk to social progress and economic stability place the onus of leveraging social innovation to find and implement solutions overwhelmingly on the social sector. Strategies to address issues such as public health crises, the impact of climate change on communities, housing, the opioid crisis and poverty currently assume that social innovation is chiefly a matter of strategic investment and adequate policy for the social sector. But social innovation requires also required a steady flow of scientific input and talent, as well as alignment across stakeholders and sectors, all of which is currently lagging.
To support a world-class inclusive innovation ecosystem that extends the benefit of publicly funded research and postsecondary education across the entire ecosystem, Canada needs to bolster its knowledge mobilisation and talent strategy. To realize its full potential and be genuinely inclusive, the Canadian social innovation ecosystem needs to be steered through a concerted research and action plan that makes the most of research and learning partnerships with universities.
The Social Innovation Ideas and Action Lab (SIIAL) is a partnered initiative led from McMaster University in connection with the Canadian Forum for Social Innovation. A partnered initiative led from McMaster University it to conduct research on innovation-driving practices to accelerate the integration across the social innovation ecosystem. SIIAL’s objectives are to establish a shared Canadian vision and evidence-based narrative for inclusive social innovation strategy and inform policy and decision-making, as well as empower social innovation actors enablers through research and talent and build capacity for inclusive social innovation in universities, the social sector, governments and industry through experiential learning.
In its first, exploratory phase (January-July 2024), the Social Innovation Ideas and Action Lab will work with the Forum’s partners and leverage co-creation, co-design, sense-making and strategic visioning to draft an actionable roadmap toward a world class inclusive social innovation ecosystem in Canada that will enable Canadian universities to increase their contribution. Specifically, establish guidelines to inform federal, provincial and local decision- and policy-making and give directions to public research and innovation institutions to make Canada a world leader in inclusive social innovation
