Incubator moves into Glasgow

Applications have opened for a six-month social innovation incubator that has expanded into Scotland’s largest city.

There are 12 places available for Good Ideas Glasgow, following two introductory workshops in April and June, with additional spots on the two-day workshop that starts the programme in September.

Good Ideas is an initiative of The Melting Pot, Scotland’s Centre for Social Innovation that is based in Edinburgh, and supports people to develop enterprises, charities and campaigns.

Since its creation in 2012, Good Ideas has incubated 93 ventures, with 46 of these still operating.

Good Ideas Glasgow will be based at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), and is part of the Erasmus-funded, threeyear Social Innovation Knowledge Exchange programme. Good Ideas in both Glasgow and Edinburgh also receives funding from the Scottish Government.

Claire Carpenter, chief executive and founder of The Melting Pot, said demand for the programme is growing. “As a pioneer in supporting social innovators, expanding Good Ideas into Glasgow is an obvious next step.”

The expansion follows Glasgow City Council’s first social enterprise strategy that prioritises stimulating social enterprise activity. The tenyear strategy, co-produced in May of this year by the council andglasgowsocialenterprise Network, aspires to make the city the social enterprise capital of Scotland.

Glasgow has more than 700 social enterprises, generating more than £800 million a year in total.

Zakia Moulaoui developed Invisible Cities – which trains people affected by homelessness to become tour guides of their own city – through Good Ideas in 2016.

Mark Anderson, director of GCU’S Europe Office, said the programme’s expansion “is significant for Scotland’s social innovation ecosystem”.