Social Innovation

http://www.qutinnovationspace.com/

QIS Offers Space, Community and Support for people interested in Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

We provide support to develop and progress initial concept ideas towards real-world products or services. And we offer opportunities for people to expand their commercialisation and creative skills.

We are not defined or restricted to a faculty or an industry. We are not defined by commercial or social innovation. We strive to bring together unlikely pairs.

We are not only here for QUT students and staff. QUT is our home and where we come from, but our doors are open.

Challenge yourself. Challenge the world.
QIS animates ideas and enterprises. We provide a support network and learning platform for people with big thoughts and a passion for change.

http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/book

A handbook for visionaries, game changers and challengers.

OUR VALUES

People-centred: we believe that ideas alone do not change the world; people with ideas do. People lie at the heart of our thinking and approach to innovation. We do ‘with’, not ‘to’ people.

Visible change: we pursue innovation for the positive impact it can have on people’s lives and will focus on achieving visible change in the behaviours of people and systems.

Brave: we welcome risk-taking, experimentation, and learning from both success and failure and we encourage others to do so too. We are biased towards action, insatiably curious, critical thinkers and willing to challenge the status quo.

Open-source: we are transparent in our dealings, share our thinking and learning, welcome dialogue, encourage collaboration and use the collective intelligence of society.

Ethical: we are ethical in everything we do.

WHAT IS THE BOLD IDEAS, BETTER LIVES CHALLENGE?

The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) exists to identify and support the innovative ideas, methods and people who can accelerate positive social change. For us that means working directly with people and problem sets to test new responses to difficult social issues.

The people and communities affected by a particular social issue are often the best architects of possible solutions. The Bold Ideas Better Lives Challenge aimed to put that resource to the test – searching for community-identified social issues and community led innovations that respond to those issues.

TACSI asked Australia “what do you think the big problems are facing our society and how do you think we can solve them?”

The ask

Innovative, impactful and implementable solutions that address Australia’s most pressing social needs.

The offer

$1 million dollars of investment, to be shared between the winning projects, and the support of TACSI and our network of mentors and capacity builders to test out those solutions in practice.

The journey from the 258 initial entries to our 8 winners has been an exciting one and we’re delighted to share these great ideas with you. Now that we’ve found them, we want to celebrate but soon we’ll all be rolling up our sleeves and getting down to the work of testing the ideas to see if they work – we’ll keep you posted.

THE WINNERS

Blending innovative approaches with perceptive community engagement and bold ideas, our winning projects demonstrate the passion, drive and diversity of individuals and groups across Australia to make a real difference to social issues facing our communities.

Our 8 winners can now get down to the business of testing out their idea for positive impact in practice and we're excited to work with them to make it happen.

Aged Care Digital Lifestyles Engaging older people with technology to improve their quality of life in aged care facilities.

AroundYou Connecting people with their local neighbourhood and building community through events, activities and services online and in mobile devices.

Employment Pathways for Deaf Students Creating access to employment for the hearing impaired through development of workplace tools, technology and training.

Hello Sunday Morning Addressing Australia’s binge drinking culture and encouraging individuals to take responsibility and change their drinking behaviour.

Renew Australia Placing creative, social and cultural initiatives in empty or disused buildings to re-engage people with underutilised urban areas.

Sharing Universal Stories of Depression Raising awareness of depression among culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Tjungu: Learning Country Building community capacity and social entrepreneurship with indigenous communities across the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjatjara lands in central Australia.

Who Gives A Crap? Turning consumers into philanthropists – a social enterprise selling environmentally sustainable toilet paper that will donate its profits to support environmental conservation and reforestation in Australia and water sanitation in the developing world.