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The purpose of this paper is to propose a new framework for developing social innovation competencies in social sciences within the agenda of the Relational University. It explores the educational strategy promoted by the Social Innovation Excubator (SIE), an experimental social sciences lab that provides students with a work-based learning scenario focusing on the solution of social problems.

This conceptual paper explores a new learning strategy to promote the Relational University. This exploration designs an experimental infrastructure named SIE. This infrastructure promotes the link between work-based learning and social innovation to develop four key competencies: heuristic, epistemic, relational and experimental skills.

There is little attention in the literature about work-based learning and social innovation. The conceptual framework provides a program on Social Innovation Capitalization (SIC) in the framework of the SIE. This framework provides a process of four phases to prototype social innovations: exploration, experimentation, exploitation and evaluation as a process to boost social innovation skills.

The conceptual framework of Relational University is an innovative and integrative model (companies, social organizations, public sector and civil society) that develops a work-based learning strategy through SIE infrastructure. The SIE has a strong implication for social sciences developing an experimental space to explore, exploit and evaluate local social problems.

The SIE infrastructure and the SIC program promotes a new strategy in social sciences to boost employability (new competencies), entrepreneurship (pilot social organizations) and intra-entrepreneurship (social innovation in organizations).

This paper proposes a conceptual and empirical framework to develop the Relational University through a new learning strategy linking work-based learning and social innovation. This practical framework covers a lack in the work-based learning perspective opening a new line of research linked to social innovation.