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effectiveness by replicating their solution from
one place to another. This means we don’t
have to waste time reinventing the wheel to
solve social challenges across Europe.
Moreover TSL relies on a well-established
multilevel network of social innovation
incubation practitioners based on a shared
framework methodology (the SIJ). We believe
that by harnessing the power of a larger
network we can ensure that successful local
projects supported by an incubator can help
address/”bridge” common social problems at a
wider geographical level and make a positive
impact on Society across the areas in need
addressed in Horizon 2020.
The TSL is based upon the belief that in order
to increase the number of succefully scaled
social innovations we cannot support well
established local innovations only, but we also
have to encourage more ambitious and
revolutionary social innovations to “born
global”. Whereas most social innovations are
rooted within the community from which they
emerge, a small proportion of social
innovations are similar to the kind of potential
business start-ups supported by venture capital
firms who benefit from being planned with big
ambitions before they even start operating.
What kind of activities do you run to support
the incubatees to scale internationally?
We divide our support for the incubatees in
three main stages.
First stage:
- Design and Validation of the Transnational
Start-ups: here we identify new ideas that can
benefit from the support of TSL, and also help
identify what type of support is best delivered.
The most critical point is to find the right
partner in each country.
- Determine selection criteria and indicators to
assess the social innovation skills and
experience of the partners who applied to the
call. These indicators look at potential growth,
potential for scale, sustainability, value
proposition, infrastructure, interaction with
customers and interest groups, opportunities
and threats. One of the most important
aspects is the innovator’s profile and the team
itself.