FUNDACION SOCIALINNOLABS

Their core work

SOCIALINNOLABS is a Madrid-based social innovation foundation that works at the intersection of food systems, rural policy, and digital tools for sustainable development. Their work involves applying data-driven methods — including text mining and blockchain — to understand and improve food supply chains, from rural farming communities to city-region food networks. They contribute to policy development by helping translate complex agricultural and food system challenges into actionable governance frameworks. In practice, they serve as a bridge between social research and applied technology in contexts where food security, sustainability, and community resilience overlap.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

SOCIALINNOLABS entered H2020 focused on rural policy and traditional agricultural systems, using text mining as a methodological tool to support evidence-based governance (PoliRural, 2019). By 2020, their second project shifted the lens from rural hinterlands to urban food systems — city-region food networks, short supply chains, and blockchain-enabled traceability — alongside environmental themes like nature-based solutions. The trajectory suggests a deliberate move from macro-level rural policy research toward applied, technology-enabled food system design at the city scale.

SOCIALINNOLABS is moving from rural policy analysis toward smart, technology-mediated food system design — making them a candidate partner for projects combining digital innovation with food security or sustainable urban development.

How they like to work

SOCIALINNOLABS participates exclusively as a consortium partner and has never coordinated a project, suggesting they operate as a specialist contributor rather than a project driver. Both projects involved very large consortia — reflected in 80 unique partners across 27 countries from just two engagements — indicating comfort working within complex, multi-stakeholder research networks. This profile fits an organization that adds targeted expertise to existing efforts rather than building and managing them.

Despite only two projects, SOCIALINNOLABS has built a remarkably broad network of 80 unique partners spanning 27 countries — a sign that both PoliRural and CITIES2030 were large pan-European consortia. Their reach is genuinely European in scope, with no visible geographic concentration beyond their Spanish base.

What sets them apart

SOCIALINNOLABS occupies an unusual position as a social innovation foundation — not a university, not a traditional research institute — that brings both policy analysis and digital methodology to food system challenges. Their dual focus on rural governance (PoliRural) and urban food resilience (CITIES2030) gives them a rare cross-scale perspective that few food-sector partners can offer. For consortia needing social science grounding combined with applied tech interest in food systems, they provide a profile that is neither purely academic nor purely technical.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CITIES2030
  Their largest project by funding (€378,500), spanning 2020–2024, combining urban food systems, blockchain, and nature-based solutions in a co-creation framework under the EU Food 2030 agenda.
• PoliRural
  Their entry into H2020 research, applying text mining to rural policy development — an early signal of their interest in data-driven methods for governance challenges.