European Social Innovation Forum 2016

As technology and new business models evolve at a breath-taking pace in various sectors of the economy, governments are becoming increasingly aware that innovation, and its widespread diffusion, bear the potential to address existing and future societal challenges and thus contribute to long term prosperity and inclusive, sustainable growth. Nowhere is this as clear as in the transportation sector, where the potential of technology to develop short and long-term solutions to societal challenges is unprecedented. This includes both existing solutions, such as smart transportation technologies developed for specific social needs and disadvantaged groups; and new business models that promise to disrupt the very concept of mobility (e.g. next generation trains, hyperloops, mobility as a service). This European Social Innovation Forum, jointly organised by CEPS and Hitachi, explored both existing and emerging innovation with a view to understanding the positive and possible negative impacts of technologies that are being developed to respond to rapidly evolving societal challenges. The Forum also discussed whether EU policies are likely to facilitate or hamper these developments, with the aim to identifying existing obstacles and possible new avenues for innovation-friendly EU policy choices.