Problem addressed
The main problem situation that the operation addresses is the lack of new effective, efficient, sustainable, and systemic solutions to the social problems of the city of Porto. Analyzing this main problem situation allowed us to break it down into several underlying problem situations, based on the experience of the Porto City Council, through its Porto Social Innovation Center, a review of some available literature, and various consultations with the local social innovation ecosystem conducted over the past few years. They are:
- Responses do not address the root of the problems - Social innovation responses often arise organically, motivated by the pressing need of one or more actors to solve a social problem they have experienced directly or indirectly. Building solutions based solely on personal experience and not complemented by academic and experiential knowledge typically leads to designing solutions that aim to minimize the symptoms of social problems rather than their causes. Despite the need and importance of mitigating these symptoms, social problems can only be effectively resolved if the responses focus on eliminating their causes.
- Limited experimentation with new solutions - Experimentation is at the core of innovation and requires specific conditions and incentives to occur in a structured manner. Innovation processes involve failing often and failing fast, generating important learning experiences that bring us closer to understanding the social problem and, therefore, solving it. The lack of experimentation hinders the social innovation ecosystem.
- Poor coordination among various actors - Systemic change requires that responses to social problems be addressed in an integrated, multisectoral, and coordinated manner. Social innovation involves a process that requires the mobilization, on the one hand, of various sectors of society to address complex problems and, on the other hand, of different actors over time, as it includes very distinct phases of development.
- Supported and funded solutions without proven impact - The lack of incorporation of impact in the decision-making process for granting support contributes to the perpetuation of solutions that have not undergone rigorous scrutiny to prove their effectiveness in solving the problems they aim to address."
Innovative solution
In addition to the laboratory promoting experimentation, it also incorporates various methodological and operational experiments and innovations:
- Problem Design Methodology
The analysis of social problems by those designing solutions is typically not concise, rushed (or even non-existent from a systematic point of view), taken for granted, or poorly scrutinized and rarely supported by evidence.
To address this issue, the Laboratory includes the experimentation of a problem design methodology with differentiating factors: the fusion of academic and experiential knowledge by involving actors from the academic, social, and public sectors; the analysis of the problem from a causal perspective, involving the analysis of its contextual expression, as well as existing responses; and the final result, in the form of a "case study," which is accessible and actionable for citizens.
This constitutes an innovation in the processes of the Porto City Council, promoting a new way of generating knowledge about the city's social problems, communicating them, and creating conditions for citizens to think of solutions in a more sustained manner.
- Structured Experimentation Model
In the context of Social Innovation, the experimentation phase has consistently been pointed out as lacking specialized resources, whether they be funding lines or incubation programs. This can be explained, at least in part, by the high degree of risk associated with experimentation, which discourages investment from public and private actors. Additionally, impact is often only considered in the later stages of solution development and is seen as something integrated through external evaluation, rather than being incorporated structurally and systematically throughout the development of the solution.
The Laboratory addresses these issues by promoting a model of structured experimentation, supported by impact processes and methodologies and the enhancement of the knowledge spill-overs generated. By assuming risk as an inherent component of the innovation process and, therefore, error as certain, the aim is to create a model that generates returns from both successful ideas and those that fail in the innovation process, utilizing the process to extract learnings that are then systematized for dissemination, thereby informing and strengthening future experimentation processes.
The innovation is thus situated at the conceptual, model, and operational levels, incorporating rigorous processes for constructing the theory of change underlying each solution and evaluating it through prototyping and testing processes. This contribution is highlighted by the central role that the theory of change plays throughout the process: from the acceleration phase where it is developed, through the incubation phase that serves to validate it, to the demo day where the solution's potential impact is presented, in line with the results of the tests conducted during the incubation phase.
This constitutes an innovation in the processes of experimenting with solutions, promoting new practices for managing the risk associated with this phase that can be disseminated to other actors.
- Learning-Based Contractualization Model
Considering the constraints and inadequacies that exist in funding models for experimentation and that pure results-based contractualization is not applicable in an experimentation phase, an innovative learning-based contractualization model is proposed. Essentially, it is a results-based contractualization where the results to be achieved pertain to learning about problems and possible solutions. During the acceleration phase, new solution promoters design the theory of change, identifying hypotheses to test and validate during the incubation phase. These hypotheses are discussed and negotiated with the monitoring committee, which selects the solutions that will enter the incubation phase, during which the hypotheses raised will be tested over six months, producing knowledge. The goal is to avoid strangling the iterative process of projects with models that require significant bureaucratic and administrative burdens, causing delays and consuming extensive human and technical resources.
- Experimentation Model with the Public Sector
The public sector is typically not involved in the creation of new solutions, being called upon only to fund them. Moreover, the context of public agents is often constrained by budgetary and resource limitations that reinforce existing practices and create barriers to developing an innovation culture within these structures.
By creating multidisciplinary teams with a public sector technician assigned to each solution, the aim is to create synergies between the public sector and social innovation promoters, leveraging the social and human capital of the Porto City Council to contribute to solution development, and promoting the transfer of innovative tools, processes, and mindsets within the Porto Council. Public sector actors will be involved from the genesis of the innovation spiral, thus being able to follow the entire idea development process rather than only participating in funding.
Therefore, a new way of addressing the city's social problems is proposed, stimulating greater proximity between the municipality and social innovators through a new experimentation model.
- Governance Model
The increasing complexity of social problems requires a multisectoral and multidimensional approach, articulating different dimensions and interests.
To meet this need, the Laboratory has a differentiated governance model by including a monitoring committee representative of all stakeholders that accompanies the solutions developed from their genesis. Comprising representative actors of citizens, public and private entities involved in the solutions, the monitoring committee serves both to allow their direct consultation in all monitoring and scrutiny processes and to create a co-creation channel for solutions through joint analysis of the operation's evolution. This distinct involvement model is expected to result in truly participatory solution co-creation.
Key results and benefits
The 1st Edition of the Social Innovation Laboratory is still ongoing but has already yielded the following results: drafting of 3 social issues submitted to a competition involving 3 academic experts, 41 proposed solutions presented; 19 experimentation projects supported in the solution generation and selection phase, 38 individuals and institutions participating in capacity-building processes for social experimentation and innovation, 10 experimentation projects supported in the solution acceleration phase, 44 individuals and institutions participating in capacity-building processes for social experimentation and innovation in the solution acceleration phase. 5 solutions in the incubation phase with funding of €20,000 for pilot testing. 10 involved mentors.
Potential for mainstreaming
Being available to open space and allow all stakeholders to actively contribute, intervene, and be involved in solving the city's problems through a social innovation methodology is a structuring step for exercising a new way of promoting citizenship in the city of Porto."
The resources, instruments, and appropriate environment enable the democratized and structured participation of social innovation methodologies, allowing for an increase in the quality of life and well-being of Porto's citizens as a global impact.
