“Education as social innovation plays a key role: it is a central lever for societal change.”
SIT places the social sciences at the heart of educational and societal transformation. Our mission is to understand educational, social and sustainability transformations from a scientific perspective, to shape them collaboratively with those affected, and to implement them effectively – at individual, organisational and systemic levels.
As a social science competence centre, SIT strengthens the European research landscape. Through the lens of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), we drive change along the axes of education, governance and sustainability – using a user-centred approach that involves stakeholders in bottom-up processes and develops governance models for sustainable implementation.
Our goal is to use our expertise in socio-economic innovation to help shape the future of agriculture and education – from analysing social needs to co-creating solutions and evaluating and applying results. This ensures that research becomes relevant for policy, practice and communities.
To achieve this, we operate both as an Excellence Centre and as a Living Lab: academically anchored at SHSS and SfS (in close coordination with IIDM), we conduct participatory research and develop interactive formats.
Combining the strengths of a centre with the methods of a Living Lab, we align academic research with policy objectives, design solutions together with stakeholders and test them in real-world environments to maximise relevance and acceptance. In this way, we create robust approaches that we co-develop and trial with users, businesses and public authorities in authentic contexts.