Research center CSI The Center for Social Investment and Innovation

The Center for Social Investment and Innovation (CSI) operates as a research unit of the Max Weber Institute for Sociology at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at Heidelberg University. It was founded in 2006 and sees itself as an interdisciplinary research, education, and information center, as well as a scientific service provider for the third sector.

Social innovation, social impact research, social integration, social enterprises, impact investment, and the social economy are at the heart of its research. As an academic institution, the CSI contributes to fundamental theoretical understanding and application-oriented knowledge through its research. As a cooperation partner, it promotes political and strategic debates in civil society and the third sector based on the findings of its collaboration.

From the outset, the research aims to apply scientifically generated knowledge in practice, in an advisory capacity and in the interests of science communication. The results obtained in this way contribute to the identity formation of the third sector and help to increase the effectiveness of social enterprises by analyzing and thus improving their legal, economic, and social framework conditions. The research results are transferred to the academic sphere through teaching and publications. In addition, the transfer into practice takes place through innovation formats of cross-sectoral cooperation, for example in innovation laboratories.