Kick-Off conference launches RESIST project in Hamburg

14 March 2024

The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg hosted the inaugural conference for the RESIST project on 11 - 13 December 2023. During a three-day meeting 25 participants from partner organisations from seven countries jointly kicked off the implementation of the RESIST project in Hamburg, Germany.

Technical details

The RESIST project provides a platform for regional authorities, business support organisations and sectoral agencies to jointly develop a model of how to open up existing regional innovation ecosystems for social innovators and social entrepreneurs tackling societal and environmental challenges.

The first conference day was dedicated to the development of a shared vision for the project. Through a co-creational process, the project partners from Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Sweden also worked towards a shared understanding of social innovation (SI) and social entrepreneurship (SE).

During the second day, participants profited from inputs provided by external speakers, who shared insights on theory and practice of social innovation. Anders Bro from the Örebro region in Sweden gave valuable insights on a specific innovation model, the “Clusters of Social and Ecological Innovation” (CSEI). The project partners will explore this model further during the project implementation phase. The presentation from Boris Kozlowski and Laura Kromminga, both co-managing directors of a recently founded hub for social innovation in Hamburg (Social Entrepreneurship City Hamburg) provided a deep-dive into the Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship ecosystem in the host city of Hamburg.

The third day was filled with work sessions on how to collaborate throughout the project implementation and a fruitful brainstorming on the functioning of the working groups and how to best achieve the project objective.

The conference program was complemented by a rich cultural program, including a visit to a newly transformed creative district in Hamburg’s former industrial harbour area, the “Oberhafenquartier”. The conference laid the foundation for a successful collaboration towards the achievement of the project’s objectives: to open up existing regional innovation ecosystems for social innovators and social entrepreneurs tackling societal and environmental challenges.