About TRANSIT
TRANSIT (TRANsformative Social Innovation Theory) was an ambitious research project that developed a theory of transformative social innovation which is about empowerment and change in society. It was co-funded by the European Commission and ran for four years, from January 2014 until December 2017. TRANSIT utilized a research method that encouraged feedback from social entrepreneurs and innovators, policy makers and academics, to develop a theory with practical relevance. The theory that has been developed is based on insights from other theories e.g. transition theory, social movement theory and institutional theory. The research project studied how social innovation can bring about empowerment and societal transformation.
The role of IHS
The TRANSIT research project is divided into six Work Packages (WP) and IHS is the team leader of the Communication & Engagement Work Package 6. The WP6 includes the development of training tools, policy briefs as well as engagement workshops targeted to professionals and policy makers working in social innovation. IHS also develops and implements a communication strategy that ensures effective dissemination of the outcomes of the research as well as engagement of policy makers, social innovators and academics in a dialogue about social innovation. IHS’ goal in this WP is to raise awareness, initiate discourse on social innovation and make social, economic, scientific and policy impact.
The IHS team:
Saskia Ruijsink (WP leader)
Maria Zwanenburg
Carley Pennink
Linda Zuijderwijk
Donia Tawakol
Veronica Olivotto
Nigel Browne
Desislava Yordanova
Stefana Cozan
A consortium of twelve partners coming from European as well as South American countries (Brazil, Argentina) is involved in the TRANSIT project with DRIFT (Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands) being the overall project coordinator. Please see below the overview of all the partners involved:
DRIFT (Coordinator) – Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands
3S-group – University of East Anglia, United Kingdom
ICIS – University of Maastricht, the Netherlands
IHS – Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands
ULB-CEDD – Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
AAU – Aalborg University, Denmark
SPRU – University of Sussex, United Kingdom
IEC-UNQ – Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina
COPPE – Rio de Janeiro Federal University, Brasil
People-Environment Research Group – Universidade da Coruna, Spain
BOKU – University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Austria
ESSRG – research and development SME, Hungary