Avise, the French National Competence Centre for Social Innovation in Europe
A National Competence Centre for Social Innovation in each EU Member State
The creation or strengthening of "Social Innovation Competence Centres" in each EU Member State, supported by the European Commission, is based on several key missions:
- Building a strategy and action plan to promote social innovation in each Member State, drawing on the European Social Fund+ (ESF+);
- Networking the various types of actors involved in social innovation in order to promote synergies, pool their expertise and develop joint advocacy work;
- Developing the ecosystem's skills regarding social innovation;
- Directing these actors towards dedicated funding: ESF+, other European programmes and other funding mechanisms;
- Supporting connections of these actors across borders and enabling them for peer-to-peer exchanges and cooperation across the EU.
In France, Avise is responsible for running the National Competence Centre for Social Innovation.
Mandated by the State in 2020, it worked for two years in a consortium with Spanish, Swedish and Latvian partners as part of the BuiCaSuS project. Over the period 2024-2027, Avise will now work with the Spanish, Swedish and Portuguese national competence centres through the BIRDS consortium, which it coordinates.
These partnerships extend across the 27 EU Member States through regular workspaces and exchanges, facilitated by the European Centre of Competence for Social Innovation (led by the Lithuanian organisation ESFA - European Social Fund Agency).
Avise, the French National Competence Centre for Social Innovation in Europe
The challenges of transition and social needs are growing and interconnected. They do not stop at our borders. We are delighted that Avise, with its 20 years of experience in developing social innovation, can represent France and mobilise its ecosystem around the National Competence Centre for Social Innovation that it carries. We are convinced that the French social and solidarity economy and its stakeholders have a great deal of expertise to share and, in return, just as much to learn from each of the European countries.
The National Competence Centre for Social Innovation, carried by Avise, operates at several levels and for the following audiences:
- At the national level, complementing the missions of regional actors;
- Through cooperation and partnership with stakeholders in the French social innovation support ecosystem;
- By seeking to break down barriers between different areas of work and mobilise public and private actors, citizens, researchers and SSE actors around a common ambition.
This mission is based on four main levers for action.
Avise's mission is to provide project leaders and, more broadly, anyone interested in social innovation with the information and tools they need to launch and develop their activities. Avise draws on its ecosystem to identify needs that are still largely unmet and to offer new tools that are accessible to all in a variety of formats, including guides, thematic dossiers, case studies and maps.
Avise draws on its national positioning to facilitate networking between local players in the social innovation ecosystem. It facilitates and develops the skills and maturity of the main communities of social innovation support providers and stakeholders throughout France in order to pool best practices, strengthen expertise and develop ambitious and innovative support mechanisms. These communities, led by Avise, bring together more than 600 actors involved in supporting SSE and social innovation.
Avise designs programmes to support the development of social innovations, operated at national level in partnership with committed third-party actors from the public and private sectors. The aim is to give social innovation leaders the means to sustain their activity, scale up and maximise their social impact. At the same time, Avise strengthens the capacity of local actors and support providers by helping them develop their own support mechanisms.
Since 2004, Avise has been working to finance the development of social and solidarity economy (SSE) and social innovation as part of its role as the French Intermediary Body for the European Social Fund (ESF). Avise launches calls for projects to finance social innovation projects at the national level: scaling-up, tools distributed throughout the country, national support programmes, etc.
Discover the NCCSIs of different European countries (French)
