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Social innovation is now recognized as having the ability to enhance society's capacity to address social and economic challenges and transform them into opportunities.
However, social innovation in Central and Eastern Europe is lagging behind. Zoya Damianova, programme director at the Applied Research and Communications Fund, a Bulgarian innovation policy and research institute, underlines that social innovation is unfamiliar territory in the region.
According to the European Innovation Scoreboard, the innovation performance of Central and Eastern Europe is below the EU average. Sweden was the 2019 EU innovation leader, followed by Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Social innovation is still a misunderstood concept in emerging Europe, but according to Martin Kern, the interim director of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, there is an untapped potential for innovation in the Central and Eastern European Member States.