The European Commission and other key societal actors in the EU and Sweden stress that social innovation is needed to solve complex societal challenges such as unemployment, ill-health and segregation (see e.g. BEPA 2010, European Commission 2021The European Commission identified such a need in ESF+ planning and therefore funded national competence centres for social innovation in most Member States, including Sweden (https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=629&langId=en&callId=604&furtherCalls=yes). The Swedish ESF Council has also identified a lack of systematic support in Sweden to create effective, lasting and value-creating social innovations in the implementation of the ESF+. There is a need to create support structures at national level in the form of operational support for projects under Key Action E, Social Innovation. By aggregating, analysing and disseminating results and good practices, the support can enable actors to run and scale up projects funded under the strand, as well as promote the social innovation ecosystem. The main problem this project seeks to solve is precisely the lack of such systematic support to create effective, lasting and value-creating social innovations in the implementation of the ESF+. These social innovations, in turn, can contribute to solving the complex societal challenges linked to unemployment, ill-health and segregation. The project is designed to meet the following needs and underlying causes of the main problem: 1. ESF projects need better tools and knowledge to create effective, lasting and value-creating social innovations 2. Lack of structural support for cross-sectoral interaction in social innovation 3. Need for collaboration and innovative working arrangements at managing authority 4. Innovative results are not aggregated and implemented and therefore do not affect lasting structures and regulations. 5. There is a lack of models for measuring and highlighting the benefits of innovative ESF projects 6. Insufficient link between ESF projects and the social innovation ecosystem 7. Target groups affected by societal challenges rarely participate in ESF projects, which reduces the opportunities for social innovations to meet their needs and conditions The lack of a support system for effective, lasting and value-creating social innovations in the implementation of ESF+ can contribute to individuals being less able to approach the labour market due to "missing" innovative and effective solutions, and to the implementation of ESF+ being less effective, to fewer social innovations being developed and therefore less able to achieve the objectives of the programme. The potential of ESF projects is not being met. Ecosystem actors are less able to contribute to effective, lasting and value-creating solutions in the implementation of the ESF+. This also means that the ecosystem, in turn, does not capitalise on the results and experience of ESF projects. The project's solution to the main problem is to continue the establishment of a national competence centre for social innovation in Sweden. It contributes to the overall project objective - that a support function has been established that promotes effective, sustainable and value-creating social innovations on work-related societal challenges in the implementation of the ESF+. This means that: • The existing Centre of Excellence for Social Innovation has been further developed and strengthened, leading to a more effective implementation of the ESF+. • Active cross-sectoral cooperation on ESF+ implementation has strengthened the national social innovation ecosystem in Sweden. • ESF project solutions have met and are responding to challenges and needs related to social inclusion, the labour market, training, capacity building in the ESF target areas of establishment and reintegration into the labour market and economic vulnerability. • Knowledge learning, active interaction and inclusion around the implementation of the support function have promoted gender equality, equal treatment and non-discrimination in the implementation of ESF projects, as well as improved employability and development potential of disadvantaged groups in the labour market. • A support function is established that lives on after the end of the project. The Centre of Excellence for Social Innovation will offer the following support measures: 1. SUPPORT FOR PROJECTS • Project-supporting cluster coalitions • Coaching support for individual projects • Annual conferences focusing on learning and knowledge dissemination • Collaboration and knowledge development on project support is ongoing with other competence centres in Europe, as well as with the European Centre of Excellence for Social Innovation 2. Cluster evaluations • Knowledge accumulation from cluster coalitions and cluster evaluations is summarised in an annual report • Development of a model for evaluating social innovation in ESF projects • Dissemination of results and knowledge aggr