Leading the team for transnational exchanges, Kollektiva organised three (3) meetings in May and April 2025 with organisations across consortia to share experiences and challenges. The top 3 selected themes to discuss were Business Models, Policy issues and Stakeholders’ collaboration.
The three meetings took place online. Through peer-to-peer exchange, speakers shared practical experiences from their own NCC journeys. In each session, teo to three speakers were in charge of presenting their Competence Center and/or highlighting the question concerned.
The May 6 session addressed how NCCSIs can move beyond short-term funding cycles and build sustainable business models. Insights were brought by Anna Tengqvist (Forum for Social Innovation, Sweden), Kaat Peeters (Sociale InnovatieFabriek) and Jan Peloza (Impact Hub Ljubljana).
Questions reflected the concern to balance financial viability with social impact goals.
The April 24 session tackled the pressing issue of policy engagement—a recurring challenge in embedding social innovation at national and local levels. In this session, representatives from 11 countries (corresponding to 4 consortia) participated in the format of a MIRO board with questions. Policy impact was discussed as a remote effect to the connection of NCCs with their respective national ministries. It was commonly agreed that overall ecosystem maturity matters more than an official inclusion in the country’s legal framework.
The third session on May 15th centered on stakeholder engagement and featured case studies from Slovenia and Slovakia.Tadej Slapnik (Slovenia) shared how a cooperative, bottom-up model fosters local ownership and trust. Alexandra Telepcakova (SI PLUS, Slovakia) presented strategies for working with public, private, and academic actors through participatory processes and advisory structures. Participants discussed challenges such as resource constraints and coordination complexity.
