Dr. Eric Li explains how the UBC Social Innovation Hub is building a better future through agile, sustainable and multifaceted community-university partnerships.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on various facets of life in Canada and around the world, disrupting individual relationships, institutional operations, and international supply chains and collaborations. It has exposed the interconnectedness and vulnerability of complex systems. In response to the challenges of the post-pandemic world, social innovation, social entrepreneurship, social enterprise, social finance and social business are increasingly recognized as innovative solutions and mechanisms.
With a focus on the multi-stakeholder model, the UBC Social Innovation Hub aims to develop and foster high-impact social innovations, social enterprises and social businesses. It is also committed to training the next generation of social innovators and entrepreneurs while fostering long-term collaborations with key partners and communities locally and globally.
The work of the Social Innovation Hub
The Social Innovation Hub focuses on three main pillars:
Research network for social innovations
The Hub supports a wide range of research projects and partnerships and is building an international social innovation research network to connect Canadian scientists with global collaborators and partners.
Social innovation learning
The Hub coordinates courses, work-integrated learning (WIL) programs, and other experiential learning activities to engage educators, learners, and community partners at all levels and promote a deeper understanding of social innovation.
Incubator for social innovation
The Hub is working with key partners to develop a “humanitarian-focused” social innovation incubator. This new program also supports the development of social enterprises, social businesses, Indigenous social enterprises and other socially-focused enterprises.
Bridging the gap between society and science
Community-university engagement is at the heart of the Hub’s approach to innovation. By fostering engagement between academia and the wider community, the Hub aims to enhance collaboration, co-development, knowledge sharing and expertise.
Another guiding principle of the Hub’s innovation strategy is inclusivity. By engaging stakeholders from multiple sectors and disciplines, the Hub ensures a collaborative, inclusive, sustainable and participatory approach to solving the complex problems of our time. The socio-economic dynamics of current challenges are complex and require collaboration between the public sector, the private sector, academia, industry leaders, community leaders, ecosystem enablers, innovators and entrepreneurs. The Hub acts as a central integrator, connecting relevant stakeholders from different sectors and disciplines.
Current topics of the Hub’s work include:
Health and Wellness
The Social Innovation Hub is dedicated to advancing social innovation research to address diverse health challenges and issues within and outside Canada.
Food system and food security
The Hub works with local, regional, national and international partners to co-develop innovative social enterprises that support food production, redistribution and consumption in local and global food systems.
Sustainable production and consumption
In line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 “Responsible Consumption and Production”, the Hub aims to reduce the carbon footprint by promoting environmentally friendly production systems and responsible consumption, thereby strengthening climate resilience.
Climate resilience
The Hub works with partners, educators and learners to co-create an ecosystem that supports social innovation that puts the planet first.
Affordable housing
The Hub is committed to tackling homelessness by working on affordable housing, contributing to the development of sustainable cities and communities, and reducing inequality within communities.
These themes will provide direction for team building. Developing a sustainable and resilient platform to support social innovation and social enterprise creation is critical. The Hub is also creating an integrated impact measurement mechanism to capture social impact and outcomes.
Please note that this article also appears in the 19th issue of our quarterly publication.
