A new initiative to help voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations develop and implement new digital social innovations in Northern Ireland has been launched.
Digital technology holds huge potential to help the VCSE sector develop new solutions to social problems. The Techies in Residence programme will bring together the respective expertise of digital technology experts and the VCSE sector to solve problems together.
The programme is an initiative of the Building Change Trust, which in turn has been funded by Big Lottery Fund. CultureTech have been appointed by the trust as Managing Agent for the ongoing development and delivery of Techies in Residence.
The 15-month programme will harness technical expertise from Northern Ireland’s leading technology firms to support six new social innovation projects devised by local VCSE sector organisations.
The project will incorporate a 10-week placement alongside a variety of mentoring support, networking opportunities and industry events. The “Techies” will work with their host organisations to develop a clearly defined social innovation project. These projects will not only serve to address key challenges faced by the VCSE sector but also act as detailed case studies and learning opportunities – building stronger links between the tech and community sectors.
The whole project will culminate in a major international digital social innovation conference in Belfast in June 2016. If you are interested in participating in the project, visit the website at www.techinres.com
The programme will offer local technology companies the opportunity to demonstrate the potential of digital innovation, grow the market, gain exposure for their business and CSR efforts, network with like-minded organisations from across Europe and develop internal talent.
Interested organisations will be asked to commit to a 10-12 week placement (Sept-Dec 2015) in a VCSE organisation for one or more of their technical team (i.e. the “Techies”). Techies in Residence is seeking high-calibre people who either have experience in managing complex projects (i.e. currently management level) or have demonstrated the potential to take on this kind of project (i.e. future management talent).
If you work in a VCSE sector organisation and are interested in working on the project, you must register your interest along with an outline of your project idea by May 29th, 2015. Any Northern Ireland based voluntary, community or social enterprise organisation can apply. You don’t need to have a specific digital project in mind but you should be able to articulate, in detail, a challenge which can be addressed.
What you do need to have is strong level of senior management “buy in” as TIR will be a challenging programme that is as much about embedding digital innovation within your organisation as it is about developing the individual project.
If you would like to read more about the potential for social innovation in Northern Ireland, we produced a Social Innovation Foresight Report last year.