about ZSI
ZSI (Centre for Social Innovation) coordinates the SI Mission Facility. The institute has a record of dozens of successfully coordinated projects funded under the European Framework Programmes for R&I. It is Austria’s most successful social scientific organisation from FP5 to HORIZON EUROPE. The institute participates in several EU Mission projects (such as MountResilience, RESIST, DANUBE4All, iNNO SED). It is also engaged in several Framework Contracts with DG R&I in fields of R&I policy advise (PSF – Policy Support Facility), FoD – Foresight on Demand, the International Service Facility and SARI (Studying, assessing and evaluating research and innovation programmes and policies). ZSI, with its more than 60 experts, is part of the Austrian EU Mission Service Facility to advice, reflect and monitor the implementation of all five EU Missions in Austria. ZSI is also part of the Austrian SI Competence Centre, the central point of contact for social innovators in the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and responsible there for scaling and applied research.
team members
Wolfgang Haider
Wolfgang Haider is a senior researcher and project manager at the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) in Vienna, where he also serves as Deputy Head of the Department for Research Policy & Development and internal coordinator of ZSI’s Social Innovation Hub.
He is the overall coordinator of the SI-Mission Facility (SIMF) and has extensive experience in coordinating EU-funded projects, specifically with a focus on social innovation, but also in the EU-Mission context. His work focuses on using social innovation to drive real-world transformations, going beyond purely technological approaches, and working at the intersection of policy, research, and civil society to bring actors together and generate tangible impact.
Wolfgang holds a Master’s degree in International Development Studies from the University of Vienna and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, providing a strong foundation for addressing complex societal challenges from a transdisciplinary perspective. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development, University of Utrecht, focusing on transformative (social) innovation, multi-level governance, regional development, and sustainability transitions.
Dr. Klaus Schuch
Dr. Klaus Schuch is senior scientist at the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI), Austria, the longest established research centre on social innovation in the EU. ZSI’s research focusses on the social embedding and impact of all types of innovations and contributes to the design and diffusion of socially accepted and sustainable innovations to meet global challenges.
Klaus is expert on (societal) impact of research and innovation, international R&I cooperation, R&I policies, and evaluation. From May 2012 until October 2024, Klaus was also managing director of the Austrian Platform for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation.
Klaus is and was engaged in a large number of national and international projects. From 2009 to 2012 he analysed the Austrian R&I policy and its implementation under ERAWATCH and he was national correspondent for the EC’s R&I Observatory. In 2007 he was scientific expert of the CREST Working Group on internationalisation in S&T and in 2012 member of the external expert group of the European Commission to advice on the European R&I-internationalisation strategy. In 2016/2017 he was delegated to the ERAC Working Group on Impact Measurement. In 2018 and 2019, Klaus was Rapporteur of the PSF Mutual Learning Exercise on National Strategies and Roadmaps for International Cooperation in R&I and in 2023/2024 rapporteur of the PSF Mutual Learning Exercise on Tackling Foreign Interference in R&I. He was also Austrian delegate to the European RTD Evaluation Network and member of the COST Scientific Committee (2016-2019). Klaus was many years also member of the Commission for Development Research of the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research (former Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) (2006-2018). Klaus is advisor to several Austrian agencies and ministries dealing with research, innovation and technology (e.g. member of the Expert Group of the Austrian Ministry of Women, Science and Research for “Cluster 2” and for “Widening Participation” in Horizon Europe. Klaus is one of the main authors of the yearly Austrian Report on Research and Technology (FTB) issued by BMWFW, BMIMI and BMAW.
Klaus gained insights on social innovation from his evaluative work, especially in the field of development cooperation. He was lecturing many years at the Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna. Klaus is also member of the board of the European School of Social Innovation.
In the SI-Mission Facility, Klaus supports ZSI’s work as the coordinating institution of the project.
The SI-Mission-Facility is funded by the European
Commission (EC) through the Horizon Europe Programme
with Grant Agreement 101216478.
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