24 Sept 2025

VARCITIES Social Return of Investment (SROI) analysis

The SROI is a forecast analysis of the social impact that can be generated by the intervention in the first year following the project completion.

As part of our project VARCITIES, a socio-economic research process called Social Return on Investment (SROI) was conducted in our seven Pilot sites. The SROI framework is a methodology applied to design and evaluate activities or projects that promote social change through the participation of local actors. It examines the outputs of the project, i.e., the expected tangible and measurable products while also focusing on the outcomes, i.e., the changes experienced by the beneficiaries, with the aim of calculating the social value created by a specific intervention.

Intense stakeholder engagement, combined with a review of the available SROI literature and secondary data, made it possible to identify the most relevant and significant changes that can be generated by VARCITIES and to hypothesize the number of subjects who will experience these benefits. The study then calculates the social value of these changes through a process of approximation to financial values (proxies), which allowed attributing monetary values to outcomes for which there is no defined market price. Finally, the obtained social value is refined through discount rates provided by the SROI that account for what would have happened regardless of the intervention or thanks to other external realities and factors present on the territory.

Dundalk pilot - SROI RATIO 1 EUR : 2.00 EUR (every €1 invested in VARCITIES is projected to yield €2.00 in social value)

In the pilot area of Dundalk, VARCITIES has intended to regenerate the Library and Museum Courtyard, with the creation of a diverse, accessible, safe, inclusive and high-quality green area to well-being and health, and deliver a fair and equitable distribution of the associated benefits.

The research had the following objectives:

to estimate what will be the social and economic changes that the 3 Visionary Solutions carried out in Dundalk will be able to generate for the key stakeholders of the project, also by calculating the ratio between benefits produced and intervention costs (called “SROI ratio”)
to offer useful insights for an improved design and management of activities, that accounts for stakeholders’ actual needs and expectations
to contribute to the dissemination of the results derived from engagement activities, aiming to share the findings with the subjects involved in the research and receive feedback on the results obtained

The citizens of Dundalk were involved in three collective discussion activities (focus groups and workshops) on the SROI to give their opinion on what changes VARCITIES can produce for different types of users.

Chania pilot - SROI RATIO 1 EUR : 4.80 EUR (every €1 invested in VARCITIES is projected to yield €4.80 in social value)

In the pilot area of Chania, VARCITIES has intended to create a Mobile Urban Living Room in open public spaces

The research had the following objectives:

to estimate what will be the social and economic changes that the 2 Visionary Solutions carried out in Chania will be able to generate for the key stakeholders of the project, also by calculating the ratio between benefits produced and intervention costs (called “SROI ratio”)
to offer useful insights for an improved design and management of activities, that accounts for stakeholders’ actual needs and expectations
to contribute to the dissemination of the results derived from engagement activities, aiming to share the findings with the subjects involved in the research and receive feedback on the results obtained

The citizens of Chania were involved in two collective discussion activities (focus groups and workshops) on the SROI to give their opinion on what changes VARCITIES can produce for different types of users.

Novo Mesto pilot - SROI RATIO 1 EUR : 2.16 EUR (every €1 invested in VARCITIES is projected to yield €2.16 in social value)

In the pilot area of Novo Mesto, VARCITIES has intended to creating accessible recreational spaces in the Češča Vas recreational area, while promoting social inclusion, physical health, and environmental awareness.

The research had the following objectives:

to estimate what will be the social and economic changes that the Visionary Solutions carried out at Češča Vas will be able to generate for the key stakeholders of the project, also by calculating the ratio between benefits produced and intervention costs (called “SROI ratio”)
to offer useful insights for an improved design and management of activities, that accounts for stakeholders’ actual needs and expectations
to contribute to the dissemination of the results derived from engagement activities, aiming to share the findings with the subjects involved in the research and receive feedback on the results obtained

The citizens of Novo Mesto were involved in three collective discussion activities (focus groups and workshops) on the SROI to give their opinion on what changes VARCITIES can produce for different types of users. The research also conducted engagement sessions with the project partners as well as in-depth interviews with key representatives of the Municipal Administration.

Leuven pilot - SROI RATIO 1 EUR : 2.78 EUR (every €1 invested in VARCITIES is projected to yield €2.78 in social value)

In the pilot area of Leuven, VARCITIES has intended to support the regeneration process of a former hospital site (Hertogensite), contributing to turning it into a green district.

The research had the following objectives:

to estimate what will be the social and economic changes that the 6 Visionary Solutions carried out in Dundalk will be able to generate for the key stakeholders of the project, also by calculating the ratio between benefits produced and intervention costs (called “SROI ratio”)
to offer useful insights for an improved design and management of activities, that accounts for stakeholders’ actual needs and expectations
to contribute to the dissemination of the results derived from engagement activities, aiming to share the findings with the subjects involved in the research and receive feedback on the results obtained

The citizens of Leuven were involved in two collective discussion activities (focus groups and workshops) on the SROI to give their opinion on what changes VARCITIES can produce for different types of users.