Social Venture Pathway
What is the project doing?
The project aimed to develop a new and dedicated multi-step pathway to support academics interested in forming a social venture. The unique pathway included a set of tools and guidance documents, to allow innovation teams to readily guide the formation of a social venture. These tools are now available on the Aspect Member Hub.
The Translational Impact Acceleration Hub (Phase 2), Social Ventures Pathways project, and the RC CoP project worked together on this project to create complementary resources for both academic and professional services staff.
Work Package 1 – Audit of material
- Deliverable: Audit
- Description: An external consultant was engaged to support an audit of material created for academic & professional services staff to support commercialisation. This audit included all templates and tools for social entrepreneurs, to find the gaps in the current disparate materials.
Work Package 2 – Creation of New Materials
- Deliverable: New materials to support the gaps identified in WP1.
- Description: This included the creation of guidance bite-sized videos on social enterprise to incorporate legal guidance from Taylor Vintners. This included a template for the Theory of Change, impact assessments, social lean canvas or the mission model canvas. In addition, materials were developed for a mini-course to engage both externals as well as how to incentivise academic researchers in this space. There will be specific resources aimed at each stage of the innovation process, to be aligned with the TIAH process.
Work Package 3 – Funding Guide
- Deliverable: Guide on investors
- Description: To create a categorised guide to impact investors and a clear guidance document on routes to funding for social ventures
Work Package 4 – Sharing sessions
- Description: To take advantage of the large group of universities with varied experiences, we will hold one-off sharing sessions on topics related to social ventures, likely led by a specific university. Topics to be identified through the audit.
Charlotte Rowan, LSE
C.Rowan1@lse.ac.uk
Announcing The Social Venture Pathway
The Social Venture Pathway offers a toolkit of resources to guide you through the process of creating a social venture. This self-guided pathway aims to fill the gaps missing from traditional innovation processes by providing a clear and comprehensive training resource for starting your first social venture.