The Observatorio de Innovación Social (OISOC) has been created to provide assistance to Spanish directors, entrepreneurs and government bodies to learn about, disseminate and integrate social innovation into their development and sphere of influence, to create value both inside and outside their organisations. The OISOC focuses on Spain and Latin America but is centred on the city of Cartagena.

This observatory is a business and sociocultural meeting point that aims to create a collaborative network of businesses, organisations, professionals, institutions and social entrepreneurs to promote social innovation (a key element in social transformation) as a tool for sustainable development. In the words of Víctor Meseguer, director of the International Chair for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at UCAM (San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia), ‘research and development of European projects will be the driving force for interaction between different actors involved in the OISOC’.

The OISOC is based on four pillars of development:

• Social innovation, as a tool to meet the major challenges facing society.
• Women and leadership as the essence of change in the fields of IT and innovation, placing emphasis on boosting female leadership and equal opportunities.
• The circular economy as a formula for action and route map to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and CSR as a development hub seeking active partnerships to create spaces and ecosystems that lead to projects and value creation.
• Responsible big data as a key part of long-term company growth, based on transparency and responsible use of resources.

What Lógica Ecommerce and the UCAM International Chair for CSR hope to achieve with the OISOC is to become a benchmark in the dissemination and promotion of social innovation and create strategic alliances among companies, universities, government bodies and institutions committed to integrating this disruptive and open process into their organisations.

Visibility and communication will be two key elements in the OISOC, whose aim is to promote actions and projects that develop or adhere to the platform, mainly through events, social media and dissemination in the conventional media. According to Andrés Dulanto Scott, Digital Content Manager at the EFE news agency, representing EFE Empresas and its CSR section during the presentation, ‘It is very important to publicise what is happening and, of course, what is good, such as CSR. This is why EFE Empresas wants to work with initiatives such as OISOC’.

The creation of the OISOC is supported by Hidrogea and EFE Empresas, its founding partners and promoters, who will also be leading the initiative. Also taking part in the presentation was the Cartagena entrepreneur Tomás Martínez Pagán, an ambassador for the observatory, who stated that, ‘I am very fortunate to be the ambassador for OISOC for Spain and Latin America in my city, an enterprising and welcoming territory with great business, historical and cultural wealth’.

The OISOC, an initiative by Lógica Ecommerce and the UCAM International Chair for CSR, was presented at the second day of the 9th Conference of the Santander Network of Chairs of Corporate Social Responsibility, held at the Port Authority Building in Cartagena.