Filipe Almeida
Filipe Almeida is the president of Portugal Social Innovation, a pioneering Government initiative that mobilizes European funds to promote social innovation and social entrepreneurship, as well as develop the social investment market in Portugal. He is also professor of the University of Coimbra and researcher at the Center of Social Studies (CES/FEUC) and Center of Cooperative and Social Economy Studies (CECES/FEUC). He holds a PhD in Business Administration from EBAPE / FGV (Brazilian School of Public Administration and Business, Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and a PhD in Business Management from the University of Coimbra. He is the author of several books and articles in Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Academic Fraud.
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March 2025
Louise Pulford
Louise Pulford, CEO,SIX – Louise had led SIX for over a decade, and now leads a global team based in London, Spain and Saudi Arabia. Under her leadership, SIX has hosted hundreds of events across 6 continents in over 30 cities. SIX has developed from being the world’s primary social innovation network to now running major programmes to help philanthropy, companies and governments embrace social innovation and prepare for future challenges more effectively.
Louise has worked on social innovation with the European Commission since 2010, and advises several European projects. Louise also sat on the Advisory group for social innovation for the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and worked with the Mayor of Seoul to embed social innovation and community engagement into the city agendas.
Louise is a seasoned speaker on cross sector/border collaboration, bridge building, future thinking and social innovation globally. She regularly runs social innovation training programmes for governments, foundations and universities around the world. Louise also publishes regular articles on networks and social innovation.
Dr. Klaus Schuch
Dr. Klaus Schuch is scientific director and senior scientist at the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI), Austria, the longest established research centre on social innovation in the EU. ZSI’s research focusses on the social embedding and impact of all types of innovations and contributes to the design and diffusion of socially accepted and sustainable innovations to meet global challenges.
Klaus is expert on (societal) impact of research and innovation, international R&I cooperation, R&I policies, and evaluation. From May 2012 to October 2023, Klaus was also managing director of the Austrian Platform for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation.
Klaus gained insights on social innovation from his evaluative work, especially in the field of development cooperation. He was lecturing many years at the Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna. Klaus is also member of the board of the European School of Social Innovation.
Most recent publication on social innovation:
Schuch, Klaus (2024) Theoretical reflections on the role of social innovation in challenge and goal-oriented R&I agenda. fteval Journal for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation (55). e7, 1-20. ISSN 1726-6629
Alejandra Boni
Alejandra Boni is a full professor at Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain) and a research fellow at Ingenio (CSIC-UPV). She is an extraordinary professor at the University of the Free State in South Africa. Her research interests focus on transformative innovation, transitions, human development and learning in different fields, such as policy processes, higher education and grassroots initiatives. She is the co-director of the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC) and the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. She was involved in research projects, training and policy advice in different European countries, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, South Africa and Nigeria.
