What is the SIF

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF) is a new public policy instrument to boost impact investment in Portugal, working in areas with strong potential for innovation, in response to unmet societal needs, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

What is SIF
What is SIF

Funded by financial allocations from the European Social Fund and National Funds, SIF focuses on two types of financial instruments, Debt and Equity, and is one of the four instruments implemented by Portugal Social Innovation initiative, which aims at supporting Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Initiatives (SISEI) that offer innovative, impactful and sustainable solutions to tackle societal problems.

Check summary table of SIF areas here

Applications are OPEN.

How it works

Areas of intervention

SIF supports initiatives in several areas of intervention, such as:

Areas of Intervention
Areas of Intervention

What is social innovation

Social innovation can be defined as the development and implementation of new ideas (products, services and models) that more effectively address societal needs, while simultaneously creating new social relationships or collaborations to improve human well-being.

Social innovations are innovations that are social in both their ends and their means. These innovations are not only good for society, but also enhance society’s capacity to act.

Social innovation is the process through which all new solutions to address societal needs are developed to offer better social outcomes. This process has four key steps:

  • Identifying new/unmet/inadequately met needs;
  • Developing new solutions to address these societal needs;
  • Assessing the effectiveness of the new solution in addressing these societal needs;
  • Widespread implementation of effective social innovations.

in Bureau of European Policy Advisors, 2011
Guide to Social Innovation, 2013

See Glossary here