An unfinished journey? Reflections on a decade of responsible research and innovation

ABSTRACT

We reflect on a decade of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) as a discourse emerging from the European Commission (EC) 10 years ago. We discuss the foundations for RRI, its emergence during the Seventh Framework programme and its subsequent evolution during Horizon 2020. We discuss how an original vision for RRI became framed around five so-called ‘keys’: gender, open access, science communication, ethics and public engagement. We consider the prospects for RRI within the context of the EC’s Open Science agenda and Horizon Europe programme, before closing with some reflections on the contribution RRI has made to debates concerning the relationship between science, innovation and society over the last decade.

KEYWORDS:

• Responsible research and innovation
• European Commission
• Open Science
• Horizon Europe

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Linden Farrer for helpful comments made on an earlier draft of this manuscript. The authors also thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Disclaimer

The views expressed here are those of the authors and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission.

Notes

1 The Deepen Project was one of a number of EC projects to adopt a deliberative approach. It was featured among the other projects in the publication: Understanding Public Debate on Nanotechnologies. Options for Public Policy, edited by Rene von Schomberg and Sarah Davies, Publication office of the European Union, 2010. These echoed earlier calls for deliberative approaches (e.g. von Schomberg (ed), Democratising Technology: Towards theory and practice of deliberative technology policy, 1999).

2 We are grateful to Robert Madelin for providing text in this paragraph.

3 For a fuller description of the similarities and differences between RRI and RI see Owen and Pansera (2019). We note here that the RI discourse in the UK emerged in parallel with, and not as a direct consequence of, the emergence of the RRI discourse at the EC, although of course both were linked.

4 There are others of course other roles of the state, such as the development of regulation.

5 http://morri-project.eu/ (see Deliverable 3.2, Table 3.2)

6 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/644200

7 https://www.hubit-project.eu/

8 www.responsiblerobotics.eu

9 www.U4IOT.eu

10 We are grateful to Robert Madelin for text in this paragraph.

11 https://www.jerri-project.eu/jerri/index.php.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Owen

Richard Owen is a Professor of Innovation Management in the School of Management, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bristol. He is interested in the power of innovation and techno-visionary science to create futures in profound and uncertain ways, how we can engage as a society with those futures and how we can take responsibility for them. He is interested in the politics, risks, ethics and governance of innovation and new technologies in society. His research sits at the intersection of innovation governance and science and technology studies as a critical, interdisciplinary scholar.

René von Schomberg

Dr Dr Phil René von Schomberg is a philosopher and a STS specialist. He graduated as an agricultural scientist. He is currently a Guest Professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt. He has been a European Union Fellow at George Mason University, the USA in 2007 and has been with the European Commission since 1998. He is the author/editor of 15 books and his publications appeared in a half dozen languages. He is co-editor of the most comprehensive book on responsible innovation to date: The International Handbook on Responsible Innovation. A global resource. He runs a blog: https://renevonschomberg.wordpress.com

Phil Macnaghten

Phil Macnaghten is a Professor in the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (KTI) group at Wageningen University. His PhD is from Exeter and he has held appointments at Lancaster, Durham and Campinas before joining Wageningen in 2015. His research background is in science and technology studies (STS) and sociology. He has worked in the science and society field on a series of science and technology controversies, developing anticipative qualitative methodologies which, in turn, have informed policy approaches to dialogue and public engagement. His current research focuses on responsible innovation, gene editing and the politics of anticipation.