About CREIS

The Centre for Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation Research (CREIS) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) aims to deepen the analysis of social entrepreneurship and innovation, combining academic research with knowledge transfer to various stakeholders in the socioeconomic environment.

CREIS initially emerged as part of the Innovation Space in Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation (EINES), an institutional project framed within the UAB 2030 Strategic Plan approved in February 2019, to promote social transformation through knowledge generation and transfer. Affiliated with the Business Department of the Faculty of Economics and Business, CREIS formally began its activity in July 2019 with the aspiration to establish itself as an academic reference in research on social entrepreneurship and innovation. In July 2024, CREIS received a favorable evaluation from the UAB Research, Transfer, and Innovation Commission, approving its continuation for the next five years.

Currently, CREIS structures its activities around three fundamental pillars: Research, Training, and the Chair, which drives knowledge transfer to society. Within this framework, we work in collaboration with social, administrative, and productive sectors, strengthening the synergies between university and community.

Some context
In recent years, entrepreneurship has become a key element for public administration, mainly as a result of its positive effect on economic and social development of countries, regions and territories. In addition, the latest economic crisis has dramatically increased the percentage of companies that are created by necessity over those created by opportunity, with a negative impact on the survival of new companies. At the same time, the "new" awareness of everything social (sustainable, ecological, ethical, etc.) has attracted the attention of not only policy makers but also academia. Hence, there is a great interest in the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship and, more broadly, in social innovation. In this regard, the concept of entrepreneurship and social innovation (understood as a process of identifying, evaluating and exploiting opportunities that allow the creation of social value, along the lines of the Sustainable Development Goals -ODS-), includes a broad range of typologies. For example, from social micro-macro transformations, the third sector, and the cooperative world, and the social and solidarity economy (with clearly social values: democratic governance, limitation of profits, etc.), up to start-ups, with marketing purposes in social innovation.
In this scenario, an in-depth study of the entrepreneurship and social innovation phenomenon; an analysis of the factors that condition it; and a focus on the impact of social projects from an economic and societal perspective, are key for a research agenda. At the same time, a better understanding of the social entrepreneurial ecosystem may also help in the design of more efficient and effective government policies that really support entrepreneurs with social perspective. In addition, if the technology factor is included in social entrepreneurship, several relevant implications, both theoretical and practical, could be derived from a rigorous and methodological study of this topic.

CREIS regulation

CREIS council minutes

CREIS positive evaluation report

CREIS summary academic years

CREIS summary academic year 2019-20

CREIS summary academic year 2020-21

CREIS summary academic year 2021-22

CREIS summary academic year 2022-23

Workshops CREIS

1st Workshop-CREIS 2019

2nd Workshop-CREIS 2021

3rd Workshop-CREIS 2022