Athens brought together National Competence Centres (NCCs) from across Europe to discuss what these structures are becoming beyond the project phase.
One idea from the opening captured the challenge well, describing the role of an NCC as a place where an ecosystem develops “a common language, a connection between the actors, and a memory of what works”, and further constructing a way to bring that knowledge back into programmes and policy.
We are proud of our consortium partners from Greece and the Greek National Competence Centre for contributing greatly to this debate by sharing their experience, their way of working, and bringing into the spotlight inspiring examples of social innovations. They move the discussion on how NCCs can play a very practical role in connecting actors who rarely sit at the same table, building capacity, helping assess impact, supporting those designing funding calls, and creating the conditions for promising solutions to move beyond one-off projects.
Scaling social innovation is not the job of the innovator alone, and public institutions, funders, intermediaries and communities need to move with it.
