Archive
The DESIS Lab @ Nova SBE was originally created as the programming arm of the ERA Chair in Social Innovation. The ERA Chair in Social Innovation at NOVA SBE has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 951735. Below we document various aspects of the work the Chair did.


Our Previous Team Members
The team involved in the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and the DESIS Lab from 2021-2026

Professor of Social Innovation and Organization Studies @NovaSBE and DESIS Lab coordinator

Organizational Ethnographer

DESIS Lab Fellow | Project Lead for the Community Garden

Meena Kadri
DESIS Fellow, Communication
.jpg)
Assistant Professor
.jpeg)
Project Manager

Social Entrepreneur Research Fellow

Community Garden Consultant

DESIS Fellow Social Innovator

Yulia Vachevskikh
PhD Student

Assistant Professor at Nova SBE

Associate Researcher at Nova SBE

Assistant Professor of Strategy at Católica Lisbon
.png)
DESIS Fellow (March 2024
-June 2025)
Our International Advisory Board
Donzelina Barroso
Director at Global Philanthropy
Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School and Alan L. Gleitsman Professor of Social Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School
Gardenville, NHDirector of Growth
& Innovation at HowGood
Co-founder at B Corps
Co-founder at SustainAbility
Director Social Research Center at Dortmund University
Vice-President at Municipality of Cascais
Vice-Rector at NOVA University of Lisbon
Director at the School of Transnational Governance and Chaired Professor at the European University Institute in Florence. Senior Fellow at the Global Innovation for Impact Lab at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.
Professor at INSEAD
Professor at University of Delaware
See all our academic publications produced by the ERA Chair in Social Innovation
Our projects
Projects we did and are not able to continue for the time being
Courses
Over the 5 years of the ERA Chair in Social Innovation, the team developed 8 courses. Some are still directly connected with the DESIS Lab activities (and listed before). Others (still offered at Nova SBE) are listed below:

Becoming a Change Maker
The course prepares students for managing innovation in a democratized landscape, where both producers and individual entities contribute to the evolving innovation paradigm. It covers open and user innovation, exploring how emerging models impact value creation amid technological shifts.
Anne-Laure Fayard | Fall Semester

Open Innovation
The course prepares students for managing innovation in a democratized landscape, where both producers and individual entities contribute to the evolving innovation paradigm. It covers open and user innovation, exploring how emerging models impact value creation amid technological shifts.
Paolo Leone | Spring Semester

Organizing for Good in the Digital Age
During the course, the concept of the “good organization” is explored and how organizations, teams, and individuals can contribute to addressing the grand challenges of our time.
Paolo Leone | Spring Semester

Philosophy and Theory in Management Research
This course introduces the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of management research. The course aims to familiarize students with the core philosophical and metatheoretical issues and controversies that underlie the practice of management research as a social science.
PhD Course offered by Paolo Leone
Activity reports
If you want to dive into our work during the 5 years of the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and the DESIS Lab, have a look at our reports:
Reports posted now under report on the website



