Effie Amanatidou, is Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Manchester Institute of Innovation Research / University of Manchester (UK). Effie has 20 years of experience in research and innovation policy analysis including in particular foresight studies and evaluation / impact assessment of research policies and programmes. Since two years ago Effie has taken up a special interest in social innovation especially in relation to grass-roots initiatives emerging in contexts of financial crises in the South of Europe.