Social Impact Lab (SIL) is a flagship in social innovation and central to the values, mission and strategy of the University of Southampton. Established by the founding director, Professor Pathik Pathak, in 2014 the Social Impact Lab aligns to the commitments of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and supports students’ understanding of social issues, fostering their sense of civic responsibility, and helps equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to become effective leaders in the field of social impact. It provides a platform for students to apply their learning in real-world contexts, network with like-minded individuals, and gain practical experience that can help shape their future careers in social impact or related fields. The University is grateful to all involved in creating and supporting SIL to date, in particular the Faculty of Social Sciences for hosting SIL and the Faculty of Art and Humanities and the Higher Education Innovation Fund for providing funding to support activities.
The Junction in the Sir James Matthews Building
The University is committed to enabling the Social Impact Lab to continue to grow, become further embedded in our cross-University practice, and to greater enhance the student experience, support our graduate outcomes strategic priority and contribute to our impact as a university. It has been identified that there are greater opportunities for future growth, reach and development for SIL through a re-positioning of SiL outside of a specific Faculty.
From 1 August 2024, the responsibility for Social Impact Lab (SIL) transferred from the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) to Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise (CESE) supported by an Advisory Board. Social Impact Lab and social enterprise activity will run as a parallel stream alongside student enterprise activity within the CESE Student Enterprise and Events team under Tom Simmonds. Professor Pathik Pathak will continue to lead and deliver the popular Social Enterprise Module UOSM2022 from the Faculty of Social Sciences, with plans to grow it significantly in the coming years, to meet demand from students across the University.
There is also an exciting opportunity to build on the recent opening of the Junction at the Sir James Matthews building with its focus on student knowledge exchange and the student enterprise eco-system by combining the strengths of existing enterprise activity with the social impact and social entrepreneurship embodied by SIL to expand the scale and reach of what SIL can achieve. This includes combining the experience of making a difference with a continued emphasis on skills development and the impact this would have not only on the world but on individual students’ career pathways.
Future developments of SIL are likely to include a reimagining of Spark India from summer 2026 to align with the plans for a new UoS TNE campus in India, alongside revised engagement with our civic mission and expansion of activity in partnership with a range of key stakeholders including current students and alumni.