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- PAST EVENTHybrid
- Hybrid
06 Mar 2026
2:00 pm
3:30 pm
About
The Social Economy sector represents over 10% of all enterprises in the European Union and provides employment for approximately 13.6 million people. Beyond its economic contribution, the sector plays a critical role in promoting social inclusion, democratic governance and sustainable development. However, despite this importance, Social Economy Organisations face persistent structural challenges.
Existing social impact assessment frameworks are often designed primarily for accountability and external reporting. As a result, they frequently overlook local specificities, impose heavy administrative burdens, and focus almost exclusively on service beneficiaries, while neglecting the impact on employees, working conditions and organisational practices.
At the same time, transnational evidence indicates that workers in the social economy often experience lower wages, precarious employment and informal working conditions, highlighting the urgent need to expand social impact assessment beyond beneficiary outcomes alone.
For this reason, the ASSETS project seeks to rethink how social impact in the social economy is understood and measured.
This workshop will present the ASSETS project’s innovative approach to social impact assessment in the social economy, combining improved evaluation frameworks with digital tools such as a mobile app and AI-based chatbot. We will explore how impact measurement can become more participatory, locally grounded, and capable of capturing working conditions and organisational change over time. Participants will discuss current challenges in impact assessment and provide feedback to help shape more inclusive and practical methodologies.
Agenda
14:00 - 14:05
Opening speech
by the project coordinator, Georgios Chatzichristos, Adjunct Lecturer, School Of Political Sciences
14:05 - 14:45
Panel discussion
Speakers (TBC):
- Alexandros Pazaitis, Researcher, Tallinn University of Technology: Outcome mapping (qualitative impact assessment)
- Maria Vrachioli, Researcher, Technical University of Munich: Cost-Benefit Analysis (quantitative impact assessment)
- Georgios Chatzichristos, Adjunct Lecturer, School of Political Sciences- AUTH
14:45 - 15:00
Demonstrating ASSETS Digital Tool
by Haris Tsigkourakos, Senior Researcher and Project Manager at AINIGMA Technologies
15:00 - 15:10
Policy feedback
by Baptiste Mandouze – Policy Officer, European Commission
15:10 - 15:25
Q&A session
15:25 - 15:30
Closing remarks
SPEAKERS
Alexandros Pazaitis
Researcher, Tallinn University of Technology
Alex’s research is focusing on value perceptions from the perspective of the commons and the implications for technology and organisation practices. He has extensive experience from research and innovation projects and project management, and has worked as a consultant for private and public organizations. His research interests include digital commons; theory of value; innovation policy; cooperativism; and distributed ledger technologies.
Maria Vrachioli
Researcher, Technical University of Munich
Senior Researcher in the Department of Production and Resource Economics at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. My work broadly focuses on Applied Production Economics, Natural Resource and Environmental Economics and, Water Use Efficiency and Productivity Analysis in agriculture.
Georgios Chatzichristos
Adjunct Lecturer, School of Political Sciences- AUTH
Georgios Chatzichristos is an economist (BA in UoM) with postgraduate studies in Political Theory (MSc, LSE) and Philosophy (MA, King’s College London), and holds a PhD from the University of the Aegean as a Marie Curie ITN fellow (RurAction). Since 2022, he has been teaching in the Department of Political Science at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and has held teaching positions at academic institutions in Greece and abroad. Since 2024, he has been the coordinator of the Horizon Europe project ASSETS. He is also co-founder and director of the research company SInopsIs , through which participates as a principal investigator in multiple Horizon Europe projects. His research focuses on rural development, social innovation, social economy, and qualitative research.
Baptiste Mandouze
Policy Officer, European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Baptiste Mandouze is a Policy Officer at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. He specializes in social entrepreneurship, public finance, and inclusive entrepreneurship. With experience as a programme officer in European and international contexts, he contributes to EU policies implementation and manage operational programmes.
Menelaos (Haris) Tsigkourakos
Senior Researcher and Project Manager, AINIGMA Technologies
Menelaos Tsigkourakos worked at the Department of Physics of NTUA (GR), TU Delft (NL), and imec (BE), and his study fields are Engineering Physics, Materials Engineering and Spectroscopy. He also has experience in consulting, drafting proposals, and managing complex projects. Currently, he works as a Senior Researcher and Project Manager at AINIGMA Technologies.
Location
- Hybrid event – the event will take place in Cologne, Germany, but it is accessible online.
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