Today some of the PERU team are in Brussels leading the closing conference for the InnOSI project. A short video describing the project and its main aims is available to watch.

Speakers at today’s conference include PERU’s Prof. Sue Baines, INNOSI Deputy Project Director on INNOSI key findings and Olivier Bontout, Deputy Head of Social Investment Strategy Unit, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission on the links from the Social Investment Package to the Pillar of Social Rights.

Our key note speaker, Prof. Anton Hemerijck, Professor of Political Science and Sociology, European University Institute will argue that social investment should be understood as a  policy paradigm, on a par with the previous hegemonic ideas of the Keynesian-Beverdigean welfare state and the neoliberal critique of the interventionist welfare state.

One of the innovations in the project has been work to capture the voices of welfare recipients from across Europe. This work was led by Peoples Voice Media (an innovative Manchester-based charity) and a short video explaining what they did is available here.

Another innovation has been to look forward and identify possible future trends in welfare and their implications for policy. Some of our Foresight findings, led by colleagues at Turku University of Applied Sciences are available here and a booklet on using Foresight methodologies in policy making can be downloaded here.