The third day of the forum "From science to business" was dedicated to discussion of social innovation and social entrepreneurship. Activists, representatives of charity funds, the coordinators and the authors of the projects in the scope of social entrepreneurship, as well as representatives of universities told to the forum participants about the importance of this direction in modern Russian and world community. They told about the main problems and contradictions arising in the process of work in the sphere of socio-project activities, they also informed about the ways to overcome these problems.
The plenary meeting was opened by the speech of chief editor of the magazine "Business community" Tatiana Bachinskaya. She told about the successful experience of many countries to overcome the problems associated with the need to improve the quality of education, unemployment, difficulties in the organization of training and employment of people with disabilities and mental problems, the opening of treatment and rehabilitation centres, improvement of sanitary conditions of the poor population, waste recycling and many other problems that inevitably arise in this scope. The main obstacles faced by entrepreneurs focused on the work in the social sphere in Russia - lack of stimulation and no systemic support from the authorities, low information support, the Russian mentality, corruption. According to the expert, the sudden explosion of social entrepreneurship in the next 10 years should not be expected, as this type of activity is directly connected with the personal initiative and interest in the final result, which is formed owing to the state support.
"The combination of market mechanisms, sustainability, effective system of management and social orientation of business provides resources saving and higher quality of social services", - said the speaker of the forum, Sergey Zakharov. He noted the importance of promoting social entrepreneurship for economic development in general.
According to executive director of the charitable society "Nevsky angel" Vladimir Lukyanov, the role of intermediary between society and social enterprise can perform intellectual centres (and universities in particular), which are the generators of ideas and technologies in framework of fulfillment of its social functions.
Representatives of universities told about various programs on implementation of social entrepreneurship in the educational process, including intercollegiate competition "People need you!", organized by the ITMO University, and project management program, implemented by the graduate school of management, SPbSU.
The plenary meeting ended with performance of the head of Department of project and innovation activity of the ITMO University. He believes social innovation of the University consists in organization of continuous process of generation and development of social projects in the University, including training of students and education through service.
A briefing "Innovation and creativity in social innovation. The development of creative industries in the global space" was held in conclusion. According to the representative of "SAP University Alliance" Maria Oseeva, innovation is threefold: attractiveness, feasibility and expediency. It is necessary to give an idea of how the ideas appear, how to create a product that is attractive to investors and charity funds, how to make so that the projects meet the requirements of consumers to instill in students a desire to innovate.
During the briefing participants were asked to work in groups. Each group was supposed to develop and present their own model of interaction between University and business. According to the head of the Center of youth entrepreneurship "MISIS" Sergey Mardanov, the main advantage of this forum is the exchange of views between all the audience: students, teachers, representatives of large and average business, and also all interested in cooperation structures and foundations. Specific model is not important in this situation. Ideas on the basis of which may be efficiently interact representatives of all parties are important in this situation.