The 2023 Interreg 2 Seas Virtual Voyage II On Social Innovation was organised virtually on the 19th of October.
It gathered over 100 members of the 2 Seas community on a Virtual Voyage throughout the Programme area.
The purpose of this voyage was to showcase Interreg 2 Seas Social Innovation projects’ achievements and open doors on funding opportunities for 2 Seas beneficiaries within ESF+. Given the fact that this was the most successful Specific Objective of the Programming period for 2 Seas projects, and that Social Innovations keeps being at the heart of the 7 policy objectives for the 21-27 programming period, the voyage was structured as to first give participants key information on Social Innovation and criteria to be looked at by projects; then concrete examples of nine 2 Seas projects complying with Social Innovation criteria were illustrated, and finally, in order to help former project partners find an alternative for their social innovation project ideas, the last section of the event was dedicated to a Guest Initiative, ESF+.
More than 250 digital tourists were taken by our faithful captain Wim de Vilder, who guided them throughout the First, Second and Third Journeys of the Virtual Voyage II.
After the Annual Event, the three Journeys have been made available as individual videos. These can be accessed in this Youtube playlist.
The First Journey deals with what social innovation is and how the 2 Seas Programme promoted it in the Programme area. In this captivating video, with the assistance of JS members, we delve into the essence of Social Innovation and uncover the main characteristics of 2 Seas Social Innovation projects. Moreover, a compelling presentation illustrates how the 2 Seas Programme has promoted Social Innovation thanks to the 6 social innovation criteria which had to be embraced by all projects.
The Second Journey brings Virtual Voyage passengers to look at 2 Seas project best practice. It is composed of 5 stops, each focusing on criteria Social Innovation projects had to comply with.
The first stop is SIREE and in this video project representatives explain how the project has complied with the 6 Social Innovation criteria.
The second stop is linked to the crossborder cooperation criteria. In this video an ORPHEUS project partner describes what cooperation with partners within the 2 Seas area has brought to the project.
The following stop highlighted other valuable social innovation criteria. PATH, SPEED-You-UP, FLAVOUR and HAIRE are the protagonists of this video dealing with these projects’ achievement of relevant outputs and measurable results.
The fourth stop brings us to SHIFT and in this video, project representatives explain how they coped with another characteristic of a good social innovation project, which is a project that communicates its impact well.
The fifth and last stop features BHC21 and I-KNOW-HOW which serve as perfect example of projects that are durable, transferrable and have the capacity to scale up, to be found in this video.
The Third Journey brings Virtual Voyage passengers to find new funding opportunities within the ESF+, available here. First, Michael Grosse from DG Employment in European Commission gives the “essentials to know”, helping beneficiaries better find their way in ESF+ and understand where the ESF Social Innovation+ Initiative comes from. Next Migle Aleksonyte from the European Social Fund Agency carries out a presentation to concretely explain what are the key activities which could be of interest for organisations interested in running Social Innovation projects, including what assistance can be offered via the European Competence Centre. Lastly, some 2 Seas project representatives provide interested organisations with tips to be taken into account when running a social innovation project.
