ACADEMIA Letters Social Innovation – theory and practice from the perspective of “Creative City – Sustainable Region” (KRAFT) National Program – Excerpt Ferenc Miszlivetz, Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg Mariann Szabó, Research fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg László Karvalics Z., Research fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg Jody Patricia Jensen, Jean Monnet Chair for European Solidarity and Social Cohesion, Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg Katalin Galambos, Katalin Galambos, Research fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg 1. Introduction The KRAFT Programme is one of the three pilot regional development policies of the Hun- garian Government which aims towards the sustainable development of small- and medium- sized towns. In contrast to conventional regional and city development practices, the approach of the KRAFT Programme integrates so-called ‘soft’ factors (culture, identity, heritage) and their efcient management with ‘hard factors’ such as infrastructure, energy, communication networks and economic sustainability. Another novelty of KRAFT is to identify and utilize synergies of interdependencies among rural and urban development factors, thus properly re- vealing the full range of conditions required for the implementation of new, complex regional development strategies for urban areas and their surroundings. The Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg (iASK) has been appointed by the Government as responsible for the prepa- ration of the KRAFT Programme and its adaptation to other border regions in HU. Academia Letters, November 2021 Corresponding Author: Ferenc Miszlivetz, ferenc.miszlivetz@iask.hu Citation: Miszlivetz, F., Szabó, M., Karvalics Z., L., Jensen, J.P., Galambos, K. (2021). Social Innovation – theory and practice from the perspective of “Creative City – Sustainable Region” (KRAFT) National Program – Excerpt. Academia Letters, Article 4107. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4107. 1 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0