Scaling Democratic Innovations

ongoing

SCALEDEM aims at unlocking the uptake of democratic innovations born in R&I actions, in particular stemming from EU-funded projects. This is achieved by developing a scaling infrastructure, including policy roadmaps and an actionable Compass for scaling democratic innovations, based on a Grounded Theory of Scaling. SCALEDEM helps researchers, practitioners, and policymakers assess opportunities and barriers for scaling democratic innovations along four dimensions: scaling high (impacting laws and policy), out (impacting greater more and new people), deep (impacting cultures and identities) and in (impacting processes' quality). SCALEDEM starts by analysing innovative solutions developed in R&I projects on the issue of citizen participation and engagement in democratic governance, in particular Horizon projects whose end date is after January 2023, to develop a Theory of Scaling. Following a collaborative and interdisciplinary translation process in its Translation Hub, SCALEDEM deploys two ambitious Scaling Grounds in the forms of Twinning and Pilot Programmes. The Scaling Grounds test and encourage the uptake of democratic innovations by new end users, scaling the societal impact of those solutions further. SCALEDEM establishes iterative feedback and capacity-building mechanisms to support the replicability and adaptability of solutions in new operational environments and actionability of theoretical solutions. In parallel, SCALEDEM involves and nurtures a global community of end users. It leverages strategic partnerships with relevant R&I projects, initiatives, and networks, notably the Network for innovative solutions for the future of democracy, to overcome the fragmentation of knowledge, identify opportunities to increase synergies for capacity-building actions to policymakers, practitioners and researchers, and expand the societal and political impact of EU-funded research in the EU and countries from Global Europe.