Research

The platform Bottom-up Initiatives for Societal Change has a strong focus on interdisciplinary research. The platform is either directly or via its members involved in various projects, but the platform also facilitates and stimulates the development of new collaborations for projects, grant proposals, and social impact.

Projects involvement

  • Enabling Societal Missions through Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (ESMEE)

    The ESMEE project is gaining insight into regional ecosystems for sustainable entrepreneurship. The project does this through scientific analysis of the mechanisms of ecosystem development, and the relationships between sustainable entrepreneurship and societal missions. 

    Consortium leader: Professor Erik Stam

  • Boosting Social and Community-driven Entrepreneurship for the Transition to an Inclusive and Sustainable Society (SCENTISS)

    Social and community-driven entrepreneurs (SCEs) come up with innovative solutions for local societal problems. However, scaling up the impact of SCEs is hampered by complexity. Through joint learning processes and new tools, the project arrives at new insights to strengthen and increase impact.

    Consortium leader: Professor Niels Bosma

  • UGlobe Research Project: Entrepreneurship-led Sustainable Development in Africa

    This project aims to stimulate sustainable development in Africa by searching for solutions in close cooperation with local entrepreneurs. The project uses a data-and-dialogue-driben entrepreneurial ecosystem approach to investigate the causes of challenges and hindrances regarding the development and the positive cycles of entrepreneurship. Using this knowledge, project members and local entrepreneurs jointly aim to improve their entrepreneurial ecosystem and to stimulate sustainable development in Africa.

    Project leader: Professor Erik Stam

  • The Missing Entrepreneurs

    This project aims to fill the historic gap regarding women's entrepreneurship by researching the aspects that may explain changes in forms of female entrepreneurship in Europe since 1900. Research questions focus on the barriers women were facing throughout history and how they managed to overcome these. To explain changes in women's entrepreneurship, this project combines a comparative analysis comprising 28 European countries with an in-depth case analysis of female company owners and innovators in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and France since 1900.

    Project leader: Dr Selin Dilli

  • The Centre on Scaling

    This is our most recent project. The research focus of this centre will be on multiple ways of harbouring innovations within our society within the contecxt of 'big challenges'., These ways of harbouring incorporate multiple actors, sectors, levels and institutional logic.

    Project leader: Professor Niels Bosma

Supported Initiatives

Since the official kick-off of the platform, the Platform Bottom-Up Initiatives for Societal Change has financially supported three projects strongly related to the key topics of our platform.

  • 'Mapping Futures through Movements: Imaginaries of Justice and Sustainability'

    Flor Avelino (f.r.avelino@uu.nl) and Anestis Amanatidis from the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development received a grant for their project, titled 'Mapping Futures through Movements: Imaginaries of Justice and Sustainability'. They will devote the rest of 2023 to mapping imaginaries of just and sustainable futures, which are enacted by movements of bottom-up initiatives with an online presence.

  • 'Entrepreneurs as Initiators of Societal Change'

    Second, Joost Dankers (j.j.dankers@uu.nl), Marten Boon & Bram Bouwens got funding for their project 'Entrepreneurs as Initiators of Societal Change'. Their research is on the response of Dutch entrepreneurs to societal challenges using a historical perspective. By conducting interviews with innovative and social entrepreneurs, as well as innovators in incumbent industries, they aim to gain insight in the role of entrepreneurs in the initiation of societal change.

  • 'Climate-Cultures as Key to Bottom-up Initiatives (Cli-Cultures)'

    The third granted research project 'Climate-Cultures as Key to Bottom-up Initiatives (Cli-Cultures)' is from Bishawjit Mallick (b.mallick@uu.nl) and his colleagues. Their research investigates community-based initiatives in five Asian countries which distinguish the local knowledge, skills and resources for effective climate change-related action. In december 2023, they will organize a session in all five countries on 'climate-cultures and community-led adaptation'.