CONNECT – TRANSFORMING KNOWLEDGE INTO IMPACT is an Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Initiative (IIES) that results from the application submitted by a cohesive Consortium, made up of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa as the Coordinating Entity and the Partner Entities, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and Universidade Católica Portuguesa (through the Yunus Social Innovation Center at Católica-Lisbon), to Call for Applications No. LISBOA2030-2024-16 – Centers for Impact Entrepreneurship, from the Lisbon 2030 Regional Program / Portugal Social Innovation Mission Structure (EMPIS).
According to this Notice, the Centres for Impact Entrepreneurship aim to stimulate local and regional Ecosystems of Innovation and social entrepreneurship through Incubation, Acceleration, and Capacity-Building processes that have a real Positive Impact on Civil Society. These programs are the result of collaboration between public, private, and Social Economy Entities. They are supported and co-financed by Social Investors, which, in the case of the CONNECT Consortium, are Lisbon City Council, the GALP Foundation, and the Santander Foundation.
Connect
CONNECT aims to promote the transfer of knowledge (scientific and empirical) between Academia and Civil Society in the fields of Social Innovation and Impact Entrepreneurship through the co-creation of Incubation and Acceleration Processes for new ideas and innovative projects and the training of Entrepreneurs, Social Organizations and the Academic Community, based on the combination of field experience and the best scientific, technical and technological knowledge of the moment.
The planned activities build on the experience and the Incubation and Acceleration Programs already implemented in the field by the Partners, in particular by Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa through Casa do Impacto, to improve processes, methodologies, and instruments through the knowledge generated in Academia, while also filling in the gaps in the life cycle of Social Innovation through new Capacity Building Programs that complement the existing ones. At the same time, it stimulates the connection and direct access of Academia to the empirical universe of Entrepreneurs, Projects, and Social Organizations, resulting in the codification of new processes, methodologies, and instruments, as well as the development of applied research.
Duration
36 months, starting November 29, 2024, and ending November 29, 2027.
Specific objectives
To improve and consolidate the incubation and acceleration processes available for the different phases of the social and territorial innovation cycle, applying the most informed scientific knowledge to the Programs set up in the field by the partners. Using Casa do Impacto’s programs and Community of Entrepreneurs, organizations, and startups as a testing ground, the aim is to co-create new program content, training methods, and tools that can be integrated into the existing programs.
To design and develop new training processes that complement and enhance existing programs, promoting closer ties between Academia and Social Organizations, contributing to the development of new ideas and projects in their sphere of activity, and their scalability, thus responding to the organizations’ Sustainability challenges. Based on a prospective analysis, the aim is to examine the most relevant Social and Environmental problems in a segmented manner, developing models, tools, and new programs to strengthen the phases of the innovation cycle that are less explored within the Ecosystem.
Collecting and analyzing information from the field, obtained from experience resulting from the Projects and Organizations participating in the Programs, so that it can be codified and transformed into new knowledge and disseminated in the Ecosystem. With the implementation of the Programs and the results obtained, the aim is to encourage action-research projects at Universities and share a transversal training process that can be replicated by other incubators/accelerators and in different territories.
