We are a dedicated centre for social entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford.
Based at Saïd Business School, our goal is to maximise the positive impact of social entrepreneurship across the world.
We support and inspire students to tackle world-scale problems through social entrepreneurship, from education to climate change, from poverty to healthcare. We offer a rich portfolio of programmes and events, opportunities for funding and financial support, as well as a range of collaborative opportunities.
We also work to advance the field of social entrepreneurship through research insights and knowledge exchange. We are in a unique position to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
Together, we can change the way the world works.
Learn more about what makes the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship unique.
Highlights from the past academic year
2020 hasn't been the year any of us expected, and while there have been many challenges, there has also been opportunity.
Across our annual review, we have shared the work that we are most proud of in the 2019-20 academic year, the inspiring people that make it happen and our plans for the future.
Nine years of accelerating positive systems change and tackling the world’s most urgent challenges.
The Skoll Venture Award is an annual prize for early-stage social ventures founded by University of Oxford students, alumni and staff. Since 2012 we have invested in £250,000 in 15 ventures. The Award aims to help early-stage social ventures overcome the pioneer gap.
This Award is distinct and separate from the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship, a prestigious prize given annually by the Skoll Foundation. Both awards recognise the importance of investing in and supporting social entrepreneurs at critical stages in their journeys to impact.
Social entrepreneurs are in the business of building better futures. While most of us see only symptoms, they look at the whole system. And by reframing a problem – seeing things differently – we can begin to reimagine what’s possible. Unlocking this process of discovery is what Reimagine is all about.
Discover fresh thinking from the Skoll Centre's dynamic collection of bloggers on social entrepreneurship.
Here, you can find the latest stories, insights, and thought provoking ideas from the people behind the Skoll Centre and our global community of entrepreneurs.
Skoll was a fundamental attraction for me, I knew that I could spend two years incubating ideas that could scale for the world
We believe social entrepreneurship is the practice of combining opportunity, innovation, and resourcefulness to address critical social and environmental challenges.
This is mainly done by purpose-driven organisations and actors whose aim is to transform the systems and practices that are the root cause of the world’s largest social and environmental problems. Social entrepreneurs work across all sectors and in all industries in government, the public sector, non-profit organisations, large corporations and social venture start-ups to achieve positive systemic change.
Fully-funded scholarship for the one year Oxford MBA
It's for those who have been working to achieve systemic change to a social or environmentally challenge, either through an initiative they started or via an impact career across any sector.
Skoll Scholars have the chance to grow their impact by expanding their networks and skills at the University of Oxford. All Scholars become part of a life-long community of change leaders across the globe.
We work with faculty and early career researchers at Oxford Saïd and beyond to enable high-quality research that generates insights to address pressing environmental and social challenges, globally. Our aim is to connect researchers with social impact practitioners, catalyse new ideas and communicate findings to generate real impact.
Our current research initiatives are:
A virtual event for global conversations on how to teach, learn, support and measure systems change.
We will explore relationships between systems actors, systemic problems and solutions; resistance to incumbent systems and inequitable power dynamics; and the resources needed to support systemic change.
What makes the Skoll Centre really special is that it sits at the nexus of theory and practice.
We will share updates on our upcoming programmes, events and opportunities.
