RISE. Engaged Research in the Social Economy
Program:
HE (Horizon Europe)
Duration:
2024-2026
Budget:
250.000€
Consortium:
4 partners in 4 countries
SFC:
Partner
RISE is a European Erasmus+ project with the main goal of enhancing the skills of social economy organisations (SEOs) to partner in projects with research institutes. This will enable more engaged research (ER), a practice that creates more socially impactful projects through collaboration between researchers and communities.
SEOs are vital to addressing some of our most urgent societal challenges directly in communities and with policy makers, including the green and digital transitions, changing demographics, inequality, social justice, health etc. Researchers and SEOs working together to tackle these issues will be stronger, more cohesive, and more impactful. Hence why this is an emerging and increasingly urgent skill need within the labour market.
Project challenge
SEOs play a key role in accessing communities, leveraging practitioner expertise, and driving meaningful change. However, they often lack the capacity to navigate the complex research landscape. RISE aims to bridge this gap by equipping SEOs with the skills, confidence, and tools necessary to overcome the challenges of an unfamiliar and often daunting environment.
Academia has driven ER thus far with little leadership from the social economy (SE). This contradicts the principles of ER itself, which emphasises science and research that is developed ‘with’ or ‘by’ the target groups, rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them (invo.org.uk).
More leadership is needed from SEOs for ER to reach its full potential and to allow both sides (SE and researchers) to benefit from high quality, social impactful research that makes a real difference in communities, policies and services.
Solutions
RISE will:
- Create a host of newly “research ready” organisations throughout the EU social economy through the development of a tailored learning programme.
- Validate project outputs and skills outcomes for participants through a comprehensive pilot and learning recognition system.
- Share our methodology for replication and identify pathways for sustainability.
- Share project results, facilitate networking, & promote the value of engaged research through an ambitious communications strategy.
At SFC, we will lead the development of the Gaps and Barriers Co-Definition process, designed to accurately identify and describe the challenges faced by SEO staff in engaging with ER. The main goal is to effectively address the needs of the learners (SEO professionals). This means better describing the target groups gaps and barriers to participate in engaged research projects, what those gaps and barriers imply during the research process and how they affect the involvement of SEO in this type of projects.
Once the gaps and barriers have been identified and described, a learning program for SEO staff will be co-created filling the identified challenges and needs. The development of his program will be led by The Wheel, and it will be aligned with the principles of the Collaborative Research Framework (adapted from SFC’s existing models).
The learning program will be validated through a two-part pilot with 15 members of the target group from each partner country/network to gather feedback and measure the quality and effectiveness of the learning content.
Results
The project will result in an innovative, validated and accessible ER course for SEOs based on identified gaps and barriers; a publication outlining our methodology, results, and sustainability plans; and awareness raising of the value of ER.
- For SEOs, increased capacity and confidence in ER, leading to more socially impactful research projects.
- For stakeholders, a replicable model, pathways to sustainability and scale up, and a greater understanding or ER, its value, and the need for more investment.
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