Swedish initiative for stronger ecosystem for social entrepreneurship and innovation

Nine actors from different parts of Sweden are kicking off the most comprehensive initiative that’s been made so far to foster a broader ecosystem and a stronger support structure for social innovation and entrepreneurship. The initiative is a collaboration between SE Forum, Ashoka Nordic, Coompanion Västerbotten, Reach for Change, Impact Invest, Inkludera, Mikrofonden, Linköping University and Sopact at the School of Social Work at Lund University, and is partly funded by the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova.

“This is an important initiative to continue strengthening the support structure for social innovation and entrepreneurship in Sweden. It’s important that the sector’s actors can get the support they need to increase their possibilities of developing an idea into a solution for social innovations to be of good use in society. We believe this initiative can contribute towards that”.

– Sara Hugosson, Vinnova

After many years of support activities such as educational programmes, funding and process development, a collective force will now coordinate knowledge, resources and networks to speed up the development of social entrepreneurship and innovation to foster sustainable growth.

“Sweden has a strong commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and various sustainability challenges, but we’re still far from achieving the global goals. We are also lagging behind many of our European friends in the development of social entrepreneurship and social innovation, as we can see by the lack of legislation and tax breaks for social enterprises as well as and under-developed financial market to support the start-up of new social enterprises. This collaboration is an opportunity to change this and concretise the work towards a society where companies, organisations and the public sector collectively create solutions to our societal challenges”.

– Tove Nordström, project manager & Executive Director at SE Forum

Cross-sector collaboration

The project that’s now been started by nine of the key players within social entrepreneurship and innovation in Sweden aims to foster broad collaboration to create a sector that can play an important role in the work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Existing actors within the innovation support structure as well as private and public organisations wanting to support entrepreneurs and innovators creating social and environmental sustainability and impact will be involved in the project to define and organise a support structure that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship at various stages doing good for the world.

The focus during the first two years will be on mapping, coordination and development of the support structure, funding solutions, policy, as well as the development of a long-term strategic partnership.

We’re keen to speak with organisations and companies interested in joining us on this journey towards a stronger ecosystem for social entrepreneurship and innovation where we can, collectively and actively, work towards creating solutions to our social and environmental challenges. If you’d like to find out more about how your organisation or company could take part, then please reach out to Tove Nordström at tove.nordstrom [at] se-forum.se

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