SIMPACT - Consortium

The Centre for Social Research (TUDO) is a central scientific institute of Technical University Dortmund. With its social scientific orientation, the institute combines excellent research with active participation in the shaping of regional and organisational innovation processes. The focus is on social innovation research, digital inclusion, distance and blended learning in combination with regional/social adoption models.

The CIS (former Centre of Economic Studies) is a research institute affiliated at University of Economics and Management in Prague. The centre provides wide range of expertise on competitiveness, innovation performance, and socio-economic development, especially in the transition countries. CIS current research activities focus on social innovation in business sector and its links to technology innovation and economic performance. Social innovation in inclusive development both in transition and developing countries build another research area.

The Maastricht Economic & Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UM-MERIT) is a research and training centre of University Maastricht (UM). The centre explores the social, political and economic factors that drive technological innovation, with a particular focus on creation, diffusion and access to knowledge. The centre now covers all aspects of governance in domestic and global organizations, from risk assessment to policy analysis, design and evaluation.

NEOMA Management School research activities combine a multi-disciplinary approach to managerial issues, based on theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions from management, economics, law and education sciences with an action-based approach, in conjunction with specific social and economic requests. A growing number of NEOMA's full-time professors work on research issues linked to social innovation, especially through the International Centre for Entrepreneurial and Alternative Management Studies.

The Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) serves as a leading forum for debate on EU affairs, but its most distinguishing feature lies in its strong in-house research capacity, complemented by an extensive network of partner institutes throughout the world. CEPS is participating in SIMPACT through its unit «Economic and Social Welfare Policy», which is largely concerned with issues such as fiscal policy, ageing, education and labour market reforms not strictly within the domain of the EU's competences.

The Karelian Institute is a regional research unit of the University of Eastern-Finland. It unites three departments: ecology, humanities and social sciences. Research activities in the social sciences derive its orientation from the University's location within a sparsely populated northern periphery. The Social Science Department has the focus on European Spatial Development, Changing Peripheries, Identity and Power (ethnic relations & politics and civil society), and Russia and Borders.