Spain

Introduction

The aim of Basque Country’s SIKE Unit is to put forward solutions to the changes and challenges facing society to contribute to its improvement and work for fair balanced development.

This vision is based on the believe, that people are the key players in all scopes of actions.
The SIKE unit will likewise approach Social Innovation as “New values and attitudes in a developing world”, adapting to a world in transformation.

2021 update:

• The Glocal platform was launched to allow international interaction of Social Innovators in SIKE 5 regions as well as other social innovation networks existing in Latin-American and South East Asia. 
• New projects have entered the SIKE Basque Country Unit: Ceolex (legal services affordable for all), Aquadat (Water Quality, Environment), Zuekinn (Consulting for the third sector), Materially (Sustainable, Endurable Materials), Nortlan (Ethical Insurance), Gotongo (connecting NGOs with volunteers).

The Unit

The Spanish SIKE unit is located at the University of Deusto. The unit is set up as a incubator at the University of Deusto, enabling a constant and intense social interaction between the University and the regional community. The incubator is conveniently located at the campus of social sciences, which also serves as the link to the third and fourth sector in the Basque Country and to themes of social, inclusive and conscious innovation.Moreover, it is closely linked to regional development agencies and Business Innovations Centers.

Different kind of activities such as “Entrepreneurial Breakfasts” or “Salad Days” will be held at the University to facilitate networking and collaboration between entrepreneurs who are part of the incubator and the regional community.

The SIKE- Social Innovation Unit will provide working spaces for social innovation incubation, whiteboards for common use and all kind of office equipment needed for an efficient development of the projects.

Cases

The two Spanish cases are Ekorrepara – Koopera Electro and MDEA (Dual Master’s Degree in Entrepreneurship in Action).

Koopera Electro is a non-profit social reintegration cooperative dedicated to the recovery of electrical appliances in the Basque Country to give them a second life. The devices are sold at commercial points of sale where these wide range of household appliances are re-sold with guarantee and at affordable prices.

MDEA follows an innovative experiential methodology based upon Design Thinking and Lean Startup. The program aims to shape the entrepreneurs of innovation, agiles at complex environments and able to take advantage from globalisation through sustainable and humanist development.

Site visit

The site visit in Spain took place from the 11th to the 13th of March 2019. It combined site visits to the local case sites of Ekorrepara and Mede, and a workshop with social innovators from the Basque Country. The workshop was hosted at the University of Deusto. Participants had more insight into the SIKE project and got to know first hand the state of Social Entrepreneurship in the Basque Country.

For a write up of the site visit to the Basque country, please see this article on ‘Diving into social innovation in the Basque country and Portugal‘.