ICT-Enabled Social Innovation - Evidence & Prospective

This report presents the results of the JRC-led research on ‘ICT-enabled Social Innovation to support the implementation of the Social Investment Package’ (IESI) conducted in partnership with the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. The IESI research is set out to help policymakers and practitioners use ICT-enabled social innovation to modernise welfare systems, provide better and more efficient social services, and ultimately increase the wellbeing and quality of life of citizens. The original research design, its theoretical framework and empirical findings contribute to the growing scientific interest on ICT-enabled social innovation in the field of social policy reforms, within the scope of the implementation of the social investment approach. Based on the analysis of evidence gathered through a documented collection of initiatives across the EU, the research also advances a proposal for developing a methodological framework to assess the social and economic impact of ICT enabled social innovation. The approach proposed is expected to support policymakers and relevant stakeholders in designing, monitoring and evaluating ICT-enabled social innovation initiatives, which could be transferred, scaled-up and replicated across Europe. Insights from the research contribute to the policy debate on the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and the future of the Welfare State in the EU.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

How ICTs Shape the Relationship Between the State and the Citizens: Exploring New Paradigms Between Civic Engagement and Social Innovation

The paper investigates the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in enabling social innovation and civic engagement. The purpose is to advance a typology for better understanding whether such a phenomenon might contribute to a paradigmatic shift in the relationship between the governments or the administrations and citizens. This framework is set out is based on the review of recent literature on social innovation and ICTs, studying the relationships between government and citizens emerging from 41 cases. The analysis highlights how ICTs underpin innovation in civic engagement initiatives in two main ways: 1) by modernising existing processes and 2) by integrating new services

Social Impact Investment in the EU. Financing strategies and outcome oriented approaches for social policy innovation: narratives, experiences, and recommendations

This report presents the results of an exploratory research jointly conducted by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre - Directorate for Growth and Innovation, Human Capital & Employment Unit, and a team of external experts from the European University Institute, School of Transnational Governance. The aim of the study is to review social impact investing strategies being proposed in EU Member States and assess what their impact is or can be in view of possible reforms to be introduced in the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), including how to combine them with the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). In particular, through insights from a comprehensive review of the landscape on social impact investment across Europe, and the analysis of a case study and a prospective scenario of use, the study represents a first attempt to assess what are the opportunities offered by this growing phenomenon, drawing recommendations in light of the proposal for the new Multi Annual Financial Framework (MFF) for the next programming period. In view of the changes in the structure, governance and modes of implementation of EU investment programmes, and with the purpose of supporting the further development of a social impact investment market, conclusions of the analysis also set the ground for future research directions on how to finance strategies and outcomes oriented approaches for a new generation of innovative social policies, including the need to define a research agenda for developing a monitoring tool and an observatory of the use and impact of social innovation and social impact investment in the EU.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

Institutionalizing Experimental Places for Inclusive Social Innovation: From Utopias to Heterotopias.

This essay embraces a notion of critical scholarship concerned with proposing normative and actionable alternatives that can create more inclusive societies and focuses on the role of institutionalizing experimental places for inclusive social innovation as a bottom-up strategic response to welfare state reforms. By mobilizing the notions of utopias and heterotopias in Foucault, the paper sheds light on the opportunity to move from policy utopias to democratic heterotopias, discussing the politics embedded in this cognitive shift and the democratic nature of social innovation changing social and governance relations by interacting with politico-administrative systems. Some obstacles to institutionalizing social innovation are highlighted, as well as some key governance mechanisms that can be activated either by public and/or social purpose organizations to try to overcome those obstacles. Finally, we discuss the importance of linking inclusive social innovation with democratic, rather than market logics

Lopinavir/Ritonavir and Darunavir/Cobicistat in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: Findings From the Multicenter Italian CORIST Study

Background: Protease inhibitors have been considered as possible therapeutic agents for COVID-19 patients. Objectives: To describe the association between lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) or darunavir/cobicistat (DRV/c) use and in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients. Study Design: Multicenter observational study of COVID-19 patients admitted in 33 Italian hospitals. Medications, preexisting conditions, clinical measures, and outcomes were extracted from medical records. Patients were retrospectively divided in three groups, according to use of LPV/r, DRV/c or none of them. Primary outcome in a time-to event analysis was death. We used Cox proportional-hazards models with inverse probability of treatment weighting by multinomial propensity scores. Results: Out of 3,451 patients, 33.3% LPV/r and 13.9% received DRV/c. Patients receiving LPV/r or DRV/c were more likely younger, men, had higher C-reactive protein levels while less likely had hypertension, cardiovascular, pulmonary or kidney disease. After adjustment for propensity scores, LPV/r use was not associated with mortality (HR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.78 to 1.13), whereas treatment with DRV/c was associated with a higher death risk (HR = 1.89, 1.53 to 2.34, E-value = 2.43). This increased risk was more marked in women, in elderly, in patients with higher severity of COVID-19 and in patients receiving other COVID-19 drugs. Conclusions: In a large cohort of Italian patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in a real-life setting, the use of LPV/r treatment did not change death rate, while DRV/c was associated with increased mortality. Within the limits of an observational study, these data do not support the use of LPV/r or DRV/c in COVID-19 patients

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

The Future of Cities

This report is an initiative of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the science and knowledge service of the European Commission (EC), and supported by the Commission's Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO). It highlights drivers shaping the urban future, identifying both the key challenges cities will have to address and the strengths they can capitalise on to proactively build their desired futures. The main aim of this report is to raise open questions and steer discussions on what the future of cities can, and should be, both within the science and policymaker communities. While addressing mainly European cities, examples from other world regions are also given since many challenges and solutions have a global relevance. The report is particularly novel in two ways. First, it was developed in an inclusive manner – close collaboration with the EC’s Community of Practice on Cities (CoP-CITIES) provided insights from the broader research community and city networks, including individual municipalities, as well as Commission services and international organisations. It was also extensively reviewed by an Editorial Board. Secondly, the report is supported by an online ‘living’ platform which will host future updates, including additional analyses, discussions, case studies, comments and interactive maps that go beyond the scope of the current version of the report. Steered by the JRC, the platform will offer a permanent virtual space to the research, practice and policymaking community for sharing and accumulating knowledge on the future of cities. This report is produced in the framework of the EC Knowledge Centre for Territorial Policies and is part of a wider series of flagship Science for Policy reports by the JRC, investigating future perspectives concerning Artificial Intelligence, the Future of Road Transport, Resilience, Cybersecurity and Fairness Interactive online platform : https://urban.jrc.ec.europa.eu/thefutureofcitiesJRC.B.3-Territorial Developmen

Understanding the Social Implications of the Digital Transformation: Insights from Four Case Studies on the Role of Social Innovation to Foster Resilience of Society

This paper advances further the analysis of previous exploratory research conducted by the authors on how social innovation can foster resilience in a digital governance context. The process of innovation in social policy, as well as the building of resilience implies changes in the existing status quo. ICTs can drive and steer such change, while at the same time they can act as counterbalance for the negative consequence of the digital transformation of labour markets on social protection systems. Understanding the logics and principles behind the design and implementation processes of exemplary innovative initiatives is thus crucial from a policy learning perspective, in order to identify the drivers and processes making this change happen and determining its outcomes. Based on an extensive body of literature reviewed the framework proposed for interpreting the effects of social innovation in fostering resilience and its application are discussed through four case studies.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Digital Governance Challenges for ICT- Enabled Innovation of Social Protection Systems in the EU

ICT-Enabled Social Innovation can help making existing service more efficient and effective, but also produce new services as a result of integration among different policy silos. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can also promote conceptual innovation in the sense of changing the base (empirical and analytical) upon which policy are first designed and later evaluat- ed. Building on extensive literature review and analysis of case studies conduct- ed as part of the research on ICT-Enabled Social Innovation (IESI) conducted by the European Commission ́s Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS), this article discusses, the results of an analy- sis of three selected case studies, exploring the relationship between different ty- pologies of ICT-enabled social innovation implemented and the broader social protection system in which they are embedded in, contributing to determine if a relationship is identified between the nature and type of ICT-enabled social in- novation and the modernization of social policies, considering the broader digital governance space in which they are implemented