Institutional changes towards responsible research and innovation

• Author: Tornasi, Zeno; Iagher, Raluca; Delaney, Niamh
• Pages: 18-34

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2. INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES TOWARDS RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH

AND INNOVATION

2.1. Policy objectives

‘Early and continuous engagement of all stakeholders is essential for sustainable,

desirable and acceptable innovation.’26 The Responsible Research and Innovation

(RRI) approach supported by the European Commission since 2011 aims to

encourage societal actors to work together during the whole research and innovation

(R&I) process to better align R&I and its outcomes with the values, needs and

expectations of society.

In practice, RRI is implemented as a package, aiming to better engage society in

research and innovation processes, enabling easier access to scientific results,

favouring better uptake of the gender and ethics dimensions in research and

innovation content, and spreading good practices in formal and informal science

education.

The eight activity lines for SwafS in the Horizon 2020 specific programme27 take up

all these dimensions of RRI in various forms.

One of the key ways of working towards the objectives for SwafS, and ensuring

impact (and therefore value for money), is the implementation of institutional

changes in beneficiaries. This is evidenced by the Key Performance Indicator for

SwafS being ‘Percentag e of research organisations fund ed implementing actions to

promote Responsible Research and Innovation, and number of institutional change

measures adopted as a result’.28

What does the EC mean by an ‘institutional change’? While this was put in broad

terms in early work programmes, by 2018-2020 it was described more precisely. In

2019, specific guidance was developed, based on observed practices and the

approach taken in the work programme 2018-2020, stating that an institutional

change is a change to how a beneficiary governs or structures itself. It is expected to

have meaningful impact within the institution concerned and intended to last beyond

the lifetime of project funding. Moreover, institutional changes towards RRI concern

one or more of the EC's five dimensions of RRI (public engagement, open access,

gender, ethics, science education), or manifest as an 'RRI package' covering all of

these five dimensions.

This chapter focuses on three of the constituents of the quadruple helix model

(firstly, higher education institutes and research funding and performing

organisations, secondly, industry and SMEs, and thirdly, regional and territorial

public authorities) and how they open up to the fourth constituent of the model

(citizens and civil society). A large part of these projects focus on implementing

institutional changes within the beneficiaries of the project funding, but others look

more widely at the systemic changes required to open up governance to society

more broadly. The final part of the chapter examines projects that sought to deepen

the knowledge base on RRI and enhance co-ordination between RRI actors.

26 Rome Declaration on Responsible Research and Innovation in Europe, Nove mber 2014

27 Regulation (EU) no 1291/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing Horizon 2020

28 Horizon 2020 indicators

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2.1.1. Research Funding and Performing Organisations and Higher Education

Institutes29

Both the 2014-2015 and 2016-2017 work programmes included topics that

supported ‘structural change’ or ‘opening’ research funding and performing

organisations to society. The work programme 2016-2017 pointed to a need to

overcome obstacles to engagement with society, for example due to lack of

knowledge or behaviour types and to focus on spreading good RRI practices in

Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) and Research Performing Organisations

(RPOs). This aim was pursued in two topics that ran in the work programme 2018-

2020, and in 2020 the focus narrowed somewhat from RRI to citizen science.

2.1.2. Industry

The work programme 2014-2015, addressed Responsible Research and Innovation in

an industrial context with a view to building the evidence base on how RRI can

improve development processes and the quality of the research and innovation

outcomes.

The work programme 2016-2017 sought to progress further in integrating RRI in

industrial contexts through two dedicated topics. Moreover, the work programme for

2020 includes a sub-topic focused on frugal innovation, bridging citizen science

approaches to industry/SMEs.

2.1.3. Territorial governance

While one project was funded from the 2014-2015 work programme on opening up

territorial governance to society, it was not until the work programme 2018- 2020

that specific focus was put on this area. The goal was to work towards the

establishment of self-sustaining R&I ecosystems, characterised by a high degree of

openness and responsiveness to local needs. This required relevant quadruple helix

R&I actors to work together. This inclusive approach ensures the buy -in of

stakeholders and results in greater sustainability on all levels. In particular, projects

focused on opening up territories through RRI and regional partners are expected to

update their smart specialisation strategies based on the broad input of society.

2.1.4. Knowledge base

Evidence from the Sixth Framework Programme Science and Society (S&S) and

Seventh Framework Programme Science in Society (SiS) programmes shows that

more consistent policy development in Science and Technology requires systematic

cooperation and a shared knowledge base on which European, national and sub-

national research and innovation policy decisions can be drawn from. In the work

programme 2014-2015, a topic was dedicated to fosterin g the sharing of ‘Science

with and for Society’ experienc e and know-how in Europe, and beyond, notably by

building a Knowledge Sharing Platform (KSP).

Several other topics in SwafS have focused on specific areas of interest, such as

monitoring the evolution and benefits of RRI, and global governance towards RRI.

Moreover, the work programme 2018-2020 included topics that encouraged

applicants to come up with areas of research that they thought were most needed

and to ‘connect the dots’ between disparate initiatives and knowledge bases

29 RFPOs should be understood broa dly as organisations developing or funding activities in the field of R &I as one of their

objectives, including civil society organisations engaged in R&I.