Innovation Residues – Modes and infrastructures of caring for our longue-durée environmental futures

Project Information

INNORES

Grant agreement ID: 101054580

DOI

10.3030/101054580

EC signature date 16 June 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2027

Funded under

• European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 497 210,00

EU contribution

€ 2 497 210,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INNORES (Innovation Residues – Modes and infrastructures of caring for our longue-durée environmental futures)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Innovation residues are the material and immaterial left-behinds of innovations that persist long after moments of production and consumption. Far from being passive remnants, they continue to shape human lives and societies, standing as witnesses to cultures of innovation, political choices, and the frequent prioritisation of short-term impacts over long-term sustainability. At a time when technological innovation is framed as a central driver of societal futures, it becomes crucial to scrutinise not only how innovations are imagined and implemented, but also how societies engage with the residues they leave behind.
INNORES offers a novel perspective by shifting the analytical focus from innovations themselves to their residues. It investigates how democratic societies conceptualise, make sense of, live with, and care for residues, and how these practices reshape their broader relation to innovation. This approach opens up vital questions of intergenerational justice, responsibility, and the distribution of risks and benefits, while also highlighting the infrastructures of care necessary to ensure sustainable futures.
The project concentrates on three key domains of innovation—nuclear energy, plastics, and digital technologies—each producing diverse kinds of residues with very different temporalities, materialities, and societal implications. Through a comparative, qualitative mixed-method design across Austria, Ireland, France, and the EU level, INNORES traces how local practices are entangled with global challenges and policy debates.
By developing a residue-centred theoretical framework, analysing the diverse ways residues are interpreted, governed and taken care of, and exploring how temporal dimensions of residues shape decision-making, INNORES advances an empirically grounded understanding of responsibility and care in innovation societies. In doing so, it not only enriches academic perspectives and societal reflections but can also contribute to policy debates, emphasising the need for governance approaches that acknowledge the enduring legacies of innovation.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first phase, INNORES advanced its conceptual, methodological, and empirical foundations. An extensive literature review was carried out in the three fields under study—nuclear residues, microplastics, and data/digital residues—integrating new developments such as the nuclear “renaissance” discourse, emerging health concerns around microplastics, and the growing role of AI in digital transitions. The team refined its shared theoretical and methodological framework, defined the first set of case studies, developed a data management plan, and launched the project website (https://www.innovation-residues.eu).
Fieldwork progressed substantially. We conducted more than 50 interviews with policy, research, and civil society actors, transcribed and analysed for first publications. Data collection included ethnography at 12 conferences across Europe, analyses of major policy events (e.g. Nuclear Summit 2024, COP28), visits to nuclear repositories in Germany, France, Belgium, and Switzerland (for comparative reasons), and collection of relevant EU-level policy documents, scientific and media sources. Materials for citizen group discussions designed and prepared; 8 discussion held in 2025.
We also identified case studies for in-depth analysis: dismantling graphite reactors in France, mining and first waste repository site in France; following microplastics through wastewater streams and connected issues; and European twin transition policies, data centre protests, national digital policies, and AI-environment links in the digital field.
INNORES disseminated results widely, with over 20 international presentations and organisation of regular project workshops in Vienna with leading scholars. In October 2024, the team co-organised the international symposium “Nuclear Revival and Legacies” in Paris, strengthening international collaboration and visibility. A book workshop on "Nuclear times" was held in June 2025.
Along the process we also worked on a number of publications which appeared and will appear during 2025.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The first round of analysis of the data we collected, generated deep insights into how innovation residues shape the relationship between innovation and society. These findings go well beyond the state of the art, demonstrating that residues are not passive by-products but active elements that matter/or should matter in societal choices, regulatory debates, and innovation trajectories. In times of rapid transformation, it becomes crucial to scrutinize these developments to intervene effectively at both political and societal levels. Our results have been presented widely in international contexts, attracting strong academic and policy interest. The project was also classified as breakthrough research by Falling Walls in the category social sciences.
The first outcomes are reflected in two submitted papers to highly visible STS and environmental policy journals (one accepted, the other with some revisions). The first introduces the concept of “collateral transitions” to reveal how digital and green transformation discourses obscure negative environmental consequences (Environmental Science & Policy). The second examines nuclear decommissioning, showing how nuclear waste is not pre-given but actively created through complex dismantling processes, exposing the lack of attention to end-of-life phases in innovation design (Science, Technology and Human Values).
Four further papers, to be submitted in early 2025, expand this frontier. They critically analyse digital solutionism in EU policy, expose the temporal complexities of nuclear decommissioning, interrogate the politics of microplastic classification, and explore the notion of responsible innovation when looking at innovation through the lens of residues.
Together, these six papers illustrate the breadth and novelty of our inquiry. By analysing residues of digitalisation, nuclear energy, and plastics, INNORES demonstrates that residues are not mere leftovers but key sites where societal futures are negotiated. This residue-centred perspective opens new pathways for rethinking innovation governance and responsibility across generations.