WP 16 – Mainstreaming social innovation in the Europe 2020 Strategy

This WP aims to outline how the Europe 2020 strategy, the EU social agenda and cohesion policy can be brought closer together at EU, national and sub-national levels.It will assess to what extent the different EU instruments available for addressing poverty and social exclusion (Structural Funds, the Open Method of Coordination and the newly to be created European Platform against poverty) can mutually reinforce each other in the context of Europe 2020.

More specifically, it will

1. analyse how European instruments and resources can be used to support social innovation and networking
2. assess the role of the European financial instruments, in particular the ESF and the European Regional Development Fund, in attaining the social objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy and
3. assess how the goal of territorial cohesion can be built in the new EU Social Agenda and how local socially innovative policies and actions can be upscaled in European cohesion policy.

The WP will draw in particular on the review of socially innovative policies and actions in WP 4 and the sample of case studies assembled in WP 11.