Pilot or policy Mainstreaming is the act of broadening the application of a change or innovation from a small-scale pilot to the whole of a programme or policy domain. It involves recognising that the results of an experiment are positive and the learning deserves to be applied more widely. It thus requires three mechanisms, to:

• finance and conduct experiments
• distinguish success from failure
• scale up the successes

Other related terms include capacity building

Capacity building

Capacity building also referred to as capacity development is a conceptual approach to development that focuses on understanding the obstacles that inhibit people, governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations from realizing their developmental goals while enhancing...

 and embedding

Embedding

In mathematics, an embedding is one instance of some mathematical structure contained within another instance, such as a group that is a subgroup....

.

History and background

The term owes its origins to the battle in schools in the USA over the rights of children with disabilities to be educated in mainstream schools. It came to prominence in Europe in the mid-1990s through Gender mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming is the public policy concept of assessing the different implications for women and men of any planned policy action, including legislation and programmes, in all areas and levels...

 - the assumption that gender is always a crucial variable in policy-making and service delivery - which had itself been mainstreamed thanks to the support of institutions such as the UN and EU.

The principle of embedding successful experiences has been generalised by the EU. The definition of the term has however generally been left implicit - the bibliography

Bibliography

Bibliography , as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology...

 below includes a sample of scholarly papers - in all of them, a definition of mainstreaming is taken for granted.

Mainstreaming in the European context

In the EU context, the term has now been extended to describe a process whereby the results of pilot projects become integrated into wider practice and programmes such as the European Social Fund

European Social Fund

The European Social Fund is the European Union’s main financial instrument for supporting employment in the Member States as well as promoting economic and social cohesion. ESF spending amounts to around 10% of the EU’s total budget....

 (ESF) and European Regional Development Fund

European Regional Development Fund

The European Regional Development Fund is a fund allocated by the European Union.-History:During the 1960s, the European Commission occasionally tried to establish a regional fund. Only Italy ever supported this, however, and nothing came of it. Britain made it an issue for their accession in...

 (ERDF) Structural Fund programmes and into policy both at EU level and Member State level.

Here, it is perceived to have two dimensions:

• vertical where the influence is on policy
• horizontal where the influence is on practice

Within the INTERREG

Interreg

Interreg is an initiative that aims to stimulate cooperation between regions in the European Union. It started in 1989, and is financed under the European Regional Development Fund...

 ERDF framework, Mainstreaming has no clear definition. The term is defined briefly within INTERREG IVC (cross regional cooperation) as follows:

"Mainstreaming, also called ‘transfer process’, is the process of integrating new knowledge and good practices into the Convergence, Competitiveness & Employment and European Territorial Cooperation objectives, through interregional cooperation."

The concept was used extensively in the EQUAL Community Initiative

EQUAL Community Initiative

EQUAL was the ‘Community Initiative’ within the European Social Fund of the European Union. It concerned “transnational co-operation to promote new means of combating all forms of discrimination and inequalities in connection with the labour market”...

 where
EQUAL institutionalised the mainstreaming process by structuring its programme into three phases:

1. Action 1 was intended to last six months and was dedicated to programme design and transnational
   Transnationality
   Transnationality is a principle of carrying out an action across national borders, so as to have effects at a more general level. It is commonly referred to with reference to the actions of the European Union , in distinction to 'international' or 'supranational' Transnationality is a principle of...
   
    partnership building
2. Action 2 was normally for two years and was the main implementation phase
3. Action 3 for mainstreaming and dissemination
   Dissemination
   To disseminate , in terms of the field of communication, means to broadcast a message to the public without direct feedback from the audience. Dissemination takes on the theory of the traditional view of communication, which involves a sender and receiver...
   
   

The three-phase structure of EQUAL along with its development partnerships structure were major drivers of innovation in the programme and appear to have produced good results despite early criticisms that the programme had a slow start.

In the wake of EQUAL, the idea is being incorporated into that of social experimentation, according to which mainstreaming will be greatly facilitated if:

• the experiment is conducted with some scientific rigour, for instance having a control group
• implementing authorities 'buy in' beforehand, and undertake to mainstream the innovation if the experiment proves to be a success.

See also

• social experimentation
• transnationality
  Transnationality
  Transnationality is a principle of carrying out an action across national borders, so as to have effects at a more general level. It is commonly referred to with reference to the actions of the European Union , in distinction to 'international' or 'supranational' Transnationality is a principle of...
  
  
• sustainability
  Sustainability
  Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
  
  
• capacity building
  Capacity building
  Capacity building also referred to as capacity development is a conceptual approach to development that focuses on understanding the obstacles that inhibit people, governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations from realizing their developmental goals while enhancing...
  
  
• embedding
  Embedding
  In mathematics, an embedding is one instance of some mathematical structure contained within another instance, such as a group that is a subgroup....