The action aims at putting the EU Missions in a better position to achieve their societal and environmental transition objectives by improving the funding environment for the upscaling social innovation in the EU and associated countries.

The action shall strengthen the engagement of social innovation actors including philanthropy in the missions.

Successful social innovation projects with a real potential for scaling to advance the EU Missions will benefit from structured and networked funding environment.

Scope:

Leveraging social innovation yields solutions that prove more adapted to society, locally and regionally, as well as more robust. In short, social innovations are “innovations that are social in ends and means.” They materialize as new products, services, and models that simultaneously meet social needs more effectively than alternatives and create new social relationships or collaborations. Social innovation involves not only citizens, but also public authorities, business and industry, and academia in the design, development, and execution of innovations. Social innovation is not only good for society, but also enhances society’s capacity to act. Social innovation engages and empowers citizens, results in a greater sense of agency and greater buy-in by citizens, industrialists, and public authorities, democratic participation, enhances the resilience of communities, increases the relevance, acceptance, and uptake of innovation, and helps foster lasting changes in individual behaviours, social practices, as well as governance models. In short, social innovation acts as a system changer.

As such, social innovation processes are relevant to all EU Missions. The Commission expects social innovation to mobilise additional stakeholders and stakeholder communities such as philanthropic funders at European level for the benefit of the EU Missions.

The availability of philanthropic and other funding for social innovation is highly skewed within EU Member States and Countries associated to Horizon Europe^[1] and philanthropic and charitable funders face particular challenges to invest ‘cross-border’. The EU wants to contribute to establishing a better funding environment for social innovation in the context of missions across the EU and associated countries by enhancing the networking and experience sharing of funders (notably by the action described in topic HORIZON-MISS-2024-CROSS-01-01) and aims at collaborating to that end with interested funders by establishing long-term partnerships (framework partnership agreement / FPA).

Article 130(2) of EU Financial regulation provides: “The purpose of a financial framework partnership agreement shall be to facilitate the achievement of policy objectives of the Union by stabilising the contractual terms of the cooperation. The financial framework partnership agreement shall specify the forms of financial cooperation and shall include an obligation to set out, in the specific agreements signed under the financial framework partnership agreement, arrangements for monitoring the achievement of specific objectives.”

Framework partnership agreements (FPAs) are implemented through Specific Grant Agreements (SGAs). Based upon an FPA, a procedure to award a SGA (included in this work programme part as "Specific Grant Agreements for a European Networked Catalyst Fund for Social Innovation in Support of the Missions") provides an EU grant in line with the presented action plan to realise the joint objectives. This EU grant of EUR 2 million shall top-up the own means at least EUR 4 million of the individual or group of funders. The FPA award procedure as presented here has no budget. The budget and rules on funding are set out in each SGA and depend on the specific type of action.

The Commission plans to establish 5 FPAs to ensure widest possible geographic coverage and make social innovation funding more prominent and more accessible across the EU and associated countries.

The expected duration of the FPA is of four years. Having concluded an FPA does not entitle entities to be awarded an SGA.

The call targets funders of social innovation. Funders of social innovation may include foundations, philanthropists, national research and innovation funding agencies, other public bodies, or private investors.

To apply for the action, interested individual eligible entities or groups thereof should demonstrate that they have a track record as social innovation investors/financiers or that they have funded social innovation projects. Applicants do not need to be involved in the CSA HORIZON-MISS-2024-CROSS-01-01.

To apply for the action interested individual eligible entities or groups thereof shall describe the unique contribution the partnership would make towards (1) the outcomes specified in this topic, and (2) the wider impacts, in the longer term, specified in the respective destinations in the work programme and submit an action plan serving the above-mentioned objectives - namely advancing the EU Missions by financing the scaling up social innovation projects and increasing the impact of Horizon Europe funding by attracting additional non-EU funds in the form of private and public contributions - for the use of the grant that the Commission could award them via an SGA. The action plan should include the following:

1. prospect identification and selection, and investment decisions: how they plan to identify promising projects and select the ones that they invest in; the Commission invites applicants to refer to the Mission Implementation Plans when developing prospect identification and selection, and investment decision criteria;
2. funding strategies and practices including selection and award procedures in place or to be put in place to award grants to final beneficiaries that scale-up social innovations: how they plan to finance social innovation. The funding strategy presented shall be based on an exemplary EU grant of up to EUR 2 million complementary to own and other funds (see below) primarily to be granted to third parties over a period of up to 4 years (the maximum duration of the FPA). The amount here describes shall serve only as justification of the strategy, it does not constitute a formal financial proposal.
3. financial architecture: how they plan to finance the upscaling of social innovations including the leverage that they can secure with the grant awarded by Horizon Europe through the SGA; the Commission expects applicants to match each EUR 1 granted by the EU with EUR 2 by non-EU sources as a minimum.
4. monitoring and reporting: how they plan to monitor and report on the upscaling of social innovation projects;
5. measuring and communicating impact: how they plan to measure and communicate on the impact achieved.

The Commission invites applicants to consult the Horizon 2020 European Social Catalyst Fund pilot. Entities that are awarded an FPA could foresee collaborating with the networking, capacity building, and learning structure established by the HORIZON-MISS-2024-CROSS-01-01 CSA: “A European Social Innovation Networking and Capacity Building Action for a European Social Innovation Networked Fund.”

Blending Horizon Europe and non-EU resources would constitute a meaningful innovation in terms of EU co-investment schemes for social and environmental good.

[1]See for example reports by Philea, The Philanthropy Europe Association (www.philea.eu).