The “TESI: Training and Education in Social Innovation” is a newly approved Interreg Adrion European co-funded project that aims at establishing a partnership to be working on the formulation of a Joint Master Programme (JMP) on Social Innovation.

The project focuses on developing competences and skills on social innovation through capacity building approaches, with an emphasis on the contemporary social challenges in public administration’s governance, such as the urban regeneration, social entrepreneurship, welfare and migration. In addition, it aims at establishing a network of Universities and research centers, in order to define and implement the JMP.

More precisely, the main outputs of the TESI project include the creation of an innovative transnational network of Universities, research institutions and business organisations working in the field of social innovation, and the design of a Strategy and an Action Plan for the development of the JMP in Social Innovation. The future Master will award a degree from at least two (2) partner Universities. The programme envisages funded mobility schemes to partner universities and includes also a training/internship period, so that to allow students writing their thesis in a real-life working or research context.

The TESI implementation was launched at its online kick-off meeting, that took place on the 9^th of February 2023 and was organized by the University of Bologna (Department of Political Science). Τhe DAISSy Research Group of the HOU, the Greek project partner, actively participated at the meeting and was represented by its Director Prof. Achilles Kameas and Dr Sissie Theodosiou, Social Anthropologist, Project Manager and Senior Researcher of DAISSy.

Furthermore, the successive online meetings provided the TESI partnership with the floor for discussing the crucial details and top priority on-going issues of the project implementation.

Within this context, the 1^st TESI Study Visit became a reality! It was implemented on 27-29 March 2023 and was organized by the University of Zagreb (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences),  in Croatia. It aimed at further strengthening all partners’ expertise and mutual knowledge, in order to start designing the JMP and to plan the related activities, such as the Webinars on Social Innovation and the Summer School. The DAISSy- HOU was represented in the 1^st Study-Visit by its Director, Prof. Achilles Kameas and Dr Sissie Theodosiou, Social Anthropologist, Project Manager and Senior Researcher of DAISSy, who were actively involved in all study-visit’s activities and had the opportunity to exchange thoroughly, taking into account its know-how and the project tasks.

The TESI partners have already started the research activities by collecting the existing educational offers on Social Innovation across the Interreg Adrion geographical area of intervention. In addition, the process of engaging relevant stakeholders (such as Universities, Research Centres, Business organisations, SMEs working in the field of Social Innovation, etc.) in the TESI partnership, is already on its way.

It is noteworthy, that DAISSy-HOU will be involved in the implementation of all TESI deliverables, having the responsibility for a series of six thematic Webinars that aim to offer a training opportunity for different target groups and to address different topics related to Social Innovation. The Webinars will be held mainly by practitioners and discussed by a group of experts including University professors.

The TESI is a nine-month project co-funded by the INTERREG Adriatic-Ionian programme of the European Union. It is implemented by a consortium of six (6) Universities and one (1) Research Centre in the following countries: Albania, Croatia, Greece, Serbia and Slovenia. The DAISSy Research Group of the HOU will ensure the effective implementation of the project activities in Greece, putting emphasis on networking and the involvement of respective stakeholders, and aiming at the multiple exploitation of the project results and its impact.

For more information on the TESI project, and other activities of DAISSy:

• Website : https://daissy.eu/ ,   https://tesi.adrioninterreg.eu/
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• Email : info@daissy.eap.gr