Research Publications

The Big Venture Challenge offers a rare opportunity to understand the motivations of new investors in social ventures and the issues faced by ambitious social entrepreneurs, by tracking co-investment deals in real time. Its practical approach lends itself to experimentation and learning, through which UnLtd hopes to uncover the key drivers of, and barriers to, →

The Big Venture Challenge kicked off in September 2011, when 25 social entrepreneurs with high potential to scale were selected from over 600 applicants. This paper shows what the selection panel were looking for: ‘proposition, people, performance and plan’.

The number of people aged 50 and over is growing as our society ages. Yet this age groups seems to be under-represented amongst social entrepreneurs. This Findings Paper explores social entrepreneurship amongst people aged 50+. We look at the motivations, distinctive features and contributions of older social entrepreneurs and the potential for social entrepreneurship to →

Social entrepreneurship creates an opportunity for young people to use their creativity and passion to address social issues. This paper explores the role of informal and formal education in helping them to do this. We find that young people can become social entrepreneurs whether they succeed academically or not, and that they learn social entrepreneurship →

What does success for social entrepreneurs look like? How do we work out who has and has not succeeded? How can we support social entrepreneurs to be successful? This second paper in our Findings Series explores these questions, giving insights from UnLtd’s delivery, research and evaluation.

In March 2010, we published our first Findings Paper. Social Entrepreneurs: The Facts provided insight into the individuals who have the passion, ideas and can-do attitude to set up and run a social venture. This 2012 edition provides an update of our previous findings and key facts about the social entrepreneurs we support.

Live UnLtd supports young people who want to start projects to make a change. It aims to give those aged 11-21 their first taste of leading a social venture. These reports describe what happens when we support these young people as they set up their ventures. They explore the economic and social impact of these →

The Interim evaluation for the 2 year Engage programme which focuses on the support needs and support benefits of social entrepreneurs running ventures which address ageing issues.

UnLtd’s Big Venture Challenge aims to support 25 social entrepreneurs to scale up their ventures and their impact rapidly. The programme is being evaluated over its three year duration by UnLtd Research. This first report sets out baseline findings of the Big Venture Challenge evaluation.

Young people can lead initiatives to create social change – they just need the right tools, structures and resources. The Confidence Curve describes UnLtd’s learning from four years of working with Comic Relief to support young social entrepreneurs. It shows how support can be set up so that young people can really own social change.

Spaces 4 Change was funded by Channel 4 and supported social entrepreneurs to start and run social ventures that unlock unused or under-utilised spaces for young people aged 16-25. The evaluation shows how the awards were used to reinvigorate community spaces, giving young people ownership and control.

From 2011-12, UnLtd ran a programme with young people who had recently left youth custody or were at risk of offending. This final evaluation report explores the achievements, challenges and lessons learned through the scheme.

UnLtd delivered a series of awards in New Cross Gate, a vulnerable community in South East London, between 2005 and 2008. The evaluation used innovative research methods, such as video letter exchanges between social entrepreneurs, to explore the programme and lessons learned.

Unlocking the potential of social entrepreneurship in Higher Education Funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, UnLtd made awards to 200 staff and students in English Higher Education Institutions between 2009 and 2011. This final evaluation report explores how far the programme was able to help embed a culture of social entrepreneurship in →

UnLtd’s first programme in partnership with Sport Relief ran from 2007 to 2009. This final evaluation shows how time-bound, ‘big bang’ projects can help young people to get an experience of social entrepreneurship that helps them learn, while fitting around their other commitments, such as school.

The two year Engage programme (April 2010 – April 2012) supported a cohort of 30 social entrepreneurs to start up, and four to scale up, ventures which address issues arising from a society which is living longer. The programme has demonstrated that social entrepreneurship can build much needed capacity for supporting the needs of older →

Findings Paper 3 generated several policy recommendations, set out in Young Social Entrepreneurship: A Vehicle for Skills and Social Development.

Between 2009 and 2011, UnLtd supported over 300 young people to use sport and recreational activities to tackle issues of conflict resolution and community cohesion. A youth-led research project was set up to explore the impact of the scheme on young people and their communities.

After receiving an UnLtd Award, for how long do Award Winners’ ventures stay active? Our ‘Focus on…’ paper summarises the key findings from Durham University’s work and next steps for UnLtd.