The state of social innovation in Europe: the first milestone of the Mobius project

The Mobius project kicked off with a European study on the current state of social innovation in five countries, France, Spain, Greece, Poland, and Bulgaria, with a special focus on youth engagement. This research has already served as the foundation for the next stages of the project, inspiring the creation of new tools, training programmes, and networks that will soon be released.

What is social innovation?
Social innovation means finding creative and sustainable solutions to social, environmental, or economic challenges that traditional approaches have not been able to solve. It’s about collaboration, fresh perspectives, and real impact: and young people play a key role in driving this change.

What did we find?
While social innovation is increasingly recognised as a driver of social transformation, its development across Europe is still uneven:

🇫🇷 France stands out for its strong government commitment and a consolidated ecosystem.
🇪🇸🇬🇷 Spain and Greece show moderate government involvement, relying heavily on civil society and EU-funded initiatives.
🇵🇱🇧🇬 Poland and Bulgaria are emerging innovators, where most initiatives are led by NGOs and supported by European funds.

Challenges ahead:

Lack of consistent public policies and long-term funding.
Limited presence of social innovation in formal education.
Insufficient systems to assess the real impact of initiatives.

What’s next for Mobius?
Based on these findings, the Mobius partners are now finalising the next project outputs:

🎓 A European training programme for Youth Social Innovation Brokers.
🧩 Practical tools and resources to foster youth participation in social innovation.
🌐 A transnational network connecting young change-makers across Europe.

These upcoming results aim to keep empowering youth as key actors in building a more inclusive and innovative Europe.

📥 Download the full report and the national studies here: