Exploring the Technological Dimension of Social Innovation: ALC at the CDTI Conference
On June 9, 2025, ALC participated in the conference “The technological dimension of social innovation”, organized by the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) at its headquarters in Madrid. The meeting brought together representatives from the public sector, technology centers, the third sector, and organizations specializing in social innovation to explore a key challenge: how to integrate the social dimension into public policies on technological innovation.
The conference was opened by José Moisés Martín Carretero, Director General of the CDTI, Spanish office for science and technology, and Patricia Bezunartea, Director General of Family Diversity and Social Services at the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda. Both stressed the need to align technological innovation with the most complex social challenges, incorporating the voice of territories, vulnerable groups, and citizens in the transformation processes.
During the session, Itziar Moreno, co-director of ALC, together with Berta González (Advisor to the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for Social Rights), presented the BIRDS project, as well as the digital strategy of the Competence Centers for Social Innovation in Europe.
In their presentation, they emphasized that these centers are not just physical spaces, but public innovation infrastructures designed to connect distributed capacities, mobilize knowledge, and activate collaboration between different levels of government, social organizations, and citizens, in which listening skills and digital simulation for decision-making can radically change. As they pointed out, “the technology to prevent and model human behavior exists, but it is used to sell more shoes or model speeches, not for democratic improvement, listening to citizens, and improving decisions when managing public policies.”
One of the central themes of the conference was the need to rethink technological innovation policies from a systemic and socially situated perspective. Current challenges—from unwanted loneliness to youth unemployment, digital exclusion, and the climate emergency—cannot be addressed with predefined or sectoral solutions.
Instead, they require approaches such as:
• Cross-cutting collaboration, breaking down administrative silos and fostering public-social cooperation.
• Co-creation and social innovation processes, placing people at the center of the solution.
• Adaptive responses and profound structural transformations, recognizing the complexity of social systems and enabling learning by doing.
