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McGill’s Social Innovators’ Integration Lab (SIIL) Awarded Major Development Grant

Published: 10 September 2015

September 10, 2015

Montreal, QC – The Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management (MDIIM) and the McGill Desautels Faculty of Management wish to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for their support of the Social Innovators’ Integration Lab (SIIL). SIIL will be a shared observatory for social innovation and entrepreneurship within the Quartier de l’innovation (QI) district, a recently designated innovation ecosystem in Montreal, QC. SIIL will establish a long-term presence for McGill researchers, students, and practitioners to work alongside local social economy organizers, with the overarching goal to develop a better understanding of social innovation and social entrepreneurship.

The platform will be led by Professor Emmanuelle Vaast, Associate Director of the MDIIM Social Economy Initiative and Associate Professor of Information Systems in the Desautels Faculty of Management. An interdisciplinary team of academics, including five Desautels faculty members representing three interdisciplinary areas, as well as a social geographer from Carleton University, will also support program development. Key partner organizations include Gestion immobilière Quo Vadis, a Benefit-Corporation real estate development company; the Regroupement économique et social du sud-ouest, a local economic development organization; and the Quartier de l’innovation, a non-profit organization charged with invigorating innovation and entrepreneurship in the city’s southwest boroughs.

SIIL has been awarded nearly $200,000 from the Canadian government, matched in cash and in-kind through partner contributions for the first three years of development. The impact of this funding will allow a permanent virtual space including an interactive map of the local social economy as well as physical space within the Salon 1861, a historic church that is being repurposed by Quo Vadis into a social innovation hub. Funding will also contribute to the hiring of a postdoctoral fellow who will coordinate SIIL’s research, teaching, and outreach agenda. Support will also be provided to the SEI Impact Internship Program which pairs top undergraduate students who apply management skills learned in the classroom to provide managerial support with social-purpose organizations. The number of Impact Internships offered within the QI district will increase five to up to ten per year, and value will be added to the existing program by converting intern learnings into case studies and other tools available through a public repository.

In the context of transitioning urban environments through social innovation, SIIL will convene and connect established practitioners, innovators, and academics through its physical and virtual space. These participants will research and document existing and emerging approaches and establish baseline data for long-term datasets to understand what supports or hinders social innovation and entrepreneurship. Finally, teaching and learning outreach will be conducted through various formats, including workshops, case studies, and online tutorials. SIIL will co-create specialized resources and tools with and for students, social innovators, entrepreneurs, and engaged citizens to improve existing social enterprises and foster new social ventures.

Professor Emmanuelle Vaast, Associate Director of the Social Economy Initiative: “The strengths of the Social Innovators’ Integration Lab lie in the high-level commitment of our community and corporate partners, the complementarity of our academic participants, and the enthusiasm of our students. By convening and connecting this social innovation and entrepreneurship community, we will be co-creating valuable and actionable knowledge.”

Professor Steve Maguire, Director of the Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management: “We wish to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for their support of social innovation research. The establishment of the Social Innovators’ Integration Lab will allow a lens to be focused on the exciting social initiatives taking place in our very city, and will provide insight to better understand and enact system-level change to academic and social purpose communities.”

 

About the Social Innovators’ Integration Lab (SIIL)

The Social Innovator’s Integration Lab (SIIL) is a shared observatory for social innovation and entrepreneurship within the Quartier de l’innovation (QI) district, a recently designated innovation ecosystem in Montreal, QC, Canada. SIIL will establish a long-term presence for McGill University researchers, students, and practitioners to work alongside local social economy organizers, with the overarching goal of developing better understanding on fostering social innovation and entrepreneurship.

About the Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management

Through teaching, research, and outreach initiatives, the Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management (MDIIM) develops and fosters an integrated approach to management, working closely with professors, academic units, administrative units and students within the Desautels Faculty and across McGill.  Over the past three years, MDIIM has become an important hub at McGill for developing and implementing transversal programming that breaks down and bridges traditional disciplinary siloes.  Building on scholarly work addressing integrated management in different contexts, integrative thinking, and integrative bargaining, MDIIM defines integrated management as management that constructively faces the tensions of different perspectives on value to implement strategies that transcend rather than accept trade-offs. 

For media inquiries at the Desautels Faculty of Management:

Ms. Leilani Ku, Associate Director of Communications

Phone: 514-398-7131

Email: leilani.ku [at] mcgill.ca

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