The world is filled with pressing social challenges that cry out for solution. On one side are issues related to natural resources, such as global climate change and adequate food supplies. On the other are problems with service systems, exemplified by issues with the cost and quality of healthcare as well as diccifulties with transportation and improvements in education.

Students visiting the “Sabores e Saberes” fair. (Credit: UFRJ Imagens)

by Carla Cipolla

The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro/Brazil (UFRJ) started the twenty-first century decided to be prepared to “a future marked by transdisciplinarity and the universalization of higher education “(UFRJ, 2008). In this context, among many other actions, takes shape in UFRJ a new project for its food system, particularly focused on the “official university canteens”, considered as a key issue in university communitarian life. Such a view is reinforced by the strong social policy implemented by the government of President Luis Inacio da Silva, on which the discussion on access to food has become central.

DESIS-Brazil, sharing all the principles and rules of the international network, specifically seeks to shed light on the factors that could favour the unfolding of the potential intrinsic to the practice of social innovation for sustainability in Brazil, drawing up guidelines for the design of solutions, i.e. a specific set of tools, services and expertise, able to make each case evolve towards a more effective and accessible form of organisation and so, ultimately, diffusible on a larger scale.

DESIS-Brazil, sharing all the principles and rules of the international network, specifically seeks to shed light on the factors that could favour the unfolding of the potential intrinsic to the practice of social innovation for sustainability in Brazil, drawing up guidelines for the design of solutions, i.e. a specific set of tools, services and expertise, able to make each case evolve towards a more effective and accessible form of organisation and so, ultimately, diffusible on a larger scale.