Project description
Aligning technological innovation with social values
Responsible research and innovation (RRI) is defined as an approach that anticipates and assesses potential implications and societal expectations with regard to research and innovation. It aims to foster the design of inclusive and sustainable research and innovation. In this context, the EU-funded EMBRACE project aims to integrate RRI principles and practices into future and emerging technology (FET) research. It will develop commercially viable services, drawing from the successful integration of RRI in the FET Flagship Human Brain Project. Specifically, the project will study the ethical issues that FET research faces and address the associated challenges. To support market entry, EMBRACE will test and validate services announced to all FET and EIC Pathfinder project participants.
Objective
Future and emerging technology (FET) research, as performed by EU FET and EIC, aims to create radically novel ideas and technologies that can disrupt and transform human lives, businesses and society as a whole. Such transformation can be greatly beneficial. At the same time work on FET can raise social and ethical concerns, linked to the processes of research and innovation, as well as their purpose and outcomes.
The EMBRACE project will develop commercially viable services to integrate principles and practices of responsible research and innovation (RRI) into FET research as well commercialisation activities. It will draw from the broad range of activities related to RRI in the FET Flagship Human Brain Project. The successful and internationally recognised work on RRI in the HBP will provide the basis on which commercial services will be tailored for FET-related work.
The EMBRACE project will address the following challenges applying appropriate methodologies:
1. To find out which specific ethical issues FET research faces, in particular during their commercialisation stage, EMBRACE will undertake a fact finding exercise. This will involve interviews with 40+ FET Launchpad project coordinators.
2. To address these challenges, EMBRACE will define appropriate RRI services. This will involve 3 focus groups on potential services.
3. The services will be validated by 6 service delivery trials (e.g. training courses, consultancy work) involving potential commercial partners.
4. The tested and validated services will be announced to all FET and EIC Pathfinder project participants to support market entry.
EMBRACE will use the Observatory for Responsible Research and Innovation (ORBIT; www.orbit-rri.org) a not-for-profit spin-out company jointly owned by the University of Oxford and De Montfort University, as the mechanism for trialling, testing and delivering the services, thus ensuring long-term impact beyond the lifetime of the FET Launchpad funding.
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinator
LE1 9BH Leicester
United Kingdom