The Atlantic Social Lab partners met last 22-23 November in Toulouse (France) for the second coordination meeting of the extension phase of the project. The meeting was organised by CRIJ Occitanie Pyrénées Mediterranée and aimed at presenting the progress made on all work packages. The meeting was attended by all the partners: the municipality of Avilés (Spain), the Social Services of Gijón (Spain), the Intermunicipal Community of Ave (Portugal), the CRIJ Occitanie Pyrénées Mediterranée (France), Enterprise North West (Northern Ireland), Glasgow Caledonian University (Scotland) and the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra (Portugal).

The progress made by all partners has been positive. The communication of the project has been done regularly and across the channels developed for this purpose. The dissemination of this extension phase has already included the presence of the project researchers in several networking events. The Social Innovation Observatory is being updated and the strategy for its sustainability is being developed. The pilot actions - a crucial dimension of the Atlantic Social Lab - are being implemented at a good pace, and the first results are expected in the first quarter of 2023.

In addition to discussing the progress of the activities and defining the next steps for the successful implementation of the project, the partners participated in a participatory focus group streamlined by CES - Centre for Social Studies. This activity aimed to collect information that will be crucial for the development of the sustainability strategy of the Observatory. 

A common practice in the project's partnership meetings is to visit local social innovation initiatives to observe good practices that may help implement the Atlantic Social Lab pilot actions. In Toulouse, the partnership made three study visits. The first one was to the "Maison de L'Orientation Toulouse". This vocational guidance centre supports the population of Toulouse in the design of their professional or educational integration projects. The second was to a Second Opportunity School dedicated to young people at risk of social exclusion, focusing on transversal skills and a pedagogical approach adapted to the student's individual needs and goals. The last study visit was at the CRIJ Occitanie Pyrénées Mediterranée's facilities and focused on demonstrating a set of gamification and virtual reality tools and techniques to train its users' soft skills, such as self-confidence.

The next partnership meeting is planned for March 2023 in Guimarães (Portugal).

The Atlantic Social Lab, led by Avilés City Council (Spain) is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the INTERREG Cooperation Program Atlantic Area, with the reference EAPA_246/2016.

Coimbra, November 30th 2022

Contact person:

Principal Investigator (PI) at CES, Hugo Pinto hpinto@ces.uc.pt