Join us on 26th April in Brussels to explore how the European institutions can support digital social innovation. View the provisional agenda and register your interest. 

Over the past decade we have seen two trends intertwine: on the one hand, the emergence of complex wicked challenges which defy traditional government solutions; and, on the other, unprecedented advances in the availability and complexity of digital technologies.

The growing field of DSI uses these technological advances to tackle many of our biggest societal challenges collaboratively and from the bottom up - from community-driven environmental data collection to crowdsourced transparency monitoring of government processes. DSI has great potential to tackle our most complex challenges and to “turbo-charge” the impact of social innovation, a field which is gaining recognition from the EU institutions. And, at a time when we must tackle the negative consequences of the digital revolution head-on, DSI can be a tool for policymakers to shape more responsible and ethical technology in line with European values.  

DSI has grown significantly in recent years, with strong support from the European Commission, some national and local governments, and various foundations. But it is now time to draw up a path forward to ensure that DSI can scale its impact.

The opportunity for DSI is huge - but it needs the right support from governments. What is the role of the EU institutions in helping DSI to reach its potential?

This workshop, organised by the Horizon 2020-funded DSI4EU project, will bring together senior officials from the EU administration, foundations, think tanks, civil society and DSI practitioners to:

• showcase the potential of DSI in priority areas for the European Commission, and share success stories from across the EU;
• discuss and refine ideas for future policy agendas in the European institutions to support DSI, through multidisciplinary conversations on different areas of competence;
• understand better how we can bring the “digital” into social innovation practice and policy, and use DSI to help shape more responsible technology;
• provide an opportunity for networking, knowledge sharing and new connections.

Registration

Please contact us on [email protected] if you are interested in attending. We have limited capacity and therefore priority will be given to representatives from the groups mentioned above. If you have any questions, please just drop us an email.