Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RE4GREEN (Research Ethics and integrity for the GREEN transition)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2024-02-01 do 2025-07-31
The overall goal of the HORIZON EUROPE-funded RE4GREEN (Research Ethics and Integrity for the Green Transition) project is to provide support for Europe’s transition to a sustainable economy and society. The project aims to do this through addressing environmental and climate challenges by developing an ethics and integrity framework for research and innovation (R&I).
The RE4GREEN project utilises “Social Lab” methodology to unpack climate and environmental ethics and integrity issues related to European R&I. Social Labs are bottom-up, participatory spaces where individuals from diverse backgrounds come together to workshop pertinent issues. In RE4GREEN the Social Labs were divided into the following six topics:
1. Health, Culture, and Inclusive Society, Civil Security
2. Digital Industry and Space
3. Climate and Mobility
4. Energy
5. Food, Bioeconomy, Agriculture, Natural Resources
6. Waters, Oceans
The Research Chair on the Social and Environmental Dimensions of the Bio-economy (Bio-economy Chair), based at the University of Cape Town (UCT), signed up to lead one of two Social Labs on topic number five: Food, Bioeconomy, Agriculture, and Natural Resources.
As the only partner from the Global South, the Bio-economy Chair brings a unique perspective about ethical issues related to the Green Transition, with a focus on the bio-economy, food systems, and agricultural production.
The RE4GREEN project utilises “Social Lab” methodology to unpack climate and environmental ethics and integrity issues related to European R&I. Social Labs are bottom-up, participatory spaces where individuals from diverse backgrounds come together to workshop pertinent issues. In RE4GREEN the Social Labs were divided into the following six topics:
1. Health, Culture, and Inclusive Society, Civil Security
2. Digital Industry and Space
3. Climate and Mobility
4. Energy
5. Food, Bioeconomy, Agriculture, Natural Resources
6. Waters, Oceans
The Research Chair on the Social and Environmental Dimensions of the Bio-economy (Bio-economy Chair), based at the University of Cape Town (UCT), signed up to lead one of two Social Labs on topic number five: Food, Bioeconomy, Agriculture, and Natural Resources.
As the only partner from the Global South, the Bio-economy Chair brings a unique perspective about ethical issues related to the Green Transition, with a focus on the bio-economy, food systems, and agricultural production.
The team from UCT led two Social Lab workshops during the reporting period. The first was held online on 21 February 2025 and the second, an in-person workshop, on 21-22 July 2025. Hosting two workshops rather than the planned four (three online and one in-person) came about due to the initial workshop surfacing significant concerns from participants, who questioned the value of engaging in a project that was not directly linked to national and local interests. A collective decision was made to reduce the number of Social Lab workshops for the South African team and to deepen the in-person engagement.
For the online workshop, UCT focused on R&I in the following four areas: lab-grown meat; carbon credits for biodiversity conservation; precision agriculture; and the bio-economy. Potential candidates were first interviewed and then invited to take part in the online workshop. It proved difficult, however, to recruit participants from these areas, thus it was decided to narrow the focus of the in-person workshop to that of agrifood systems.
The online workshop took place after conducting more than 20 interviews. It was attended by seven participants – three from the NGO sector and four from academia - (11 confirmed their attendance but on the day of the workshop four were not able to participate). The in-person workshop was attended by 20 participants hailing from government, civil society organisations, academia, and industry. Although the team was unable to recruit citizen scientists, three of the participants self-identified as food systems activists, in effect taking on the role of citizen scientists.
For the online workshop, UCT focused on R&I in the following four areas: lab-grown meat; carbon credits for biodiversity conservation; precision agriculture; and the bio-economy. Potential candidates were first interviewed and then invited to take part in the online workshop. It proved difficult, however, to recruit participants from these areas, thus it was decided to narrow the focus of the in-person workshop to that of agrifood systems.
The online workshop took place after conducting more than 20 interviews. It was attended by seven participants – three from the NGO sector and four from academia - (11 confirmed their attendance but on the day of the workshop four were not able to participate). The in-person workshop was attended by 20 participants hailing from government, civil society organisations, academia, and industry. Although the team was unable to recruit citizen scientists, three of the participants self-identified as food systems activists, in effect taking on the role of citizen scientists.
The Social Lab workshops allowed participants to identify and analyse environmental and climate ethics issues arising from R&I activities in various food and agriculture-related fields. Key issues raised in the interviews were presented to participants who were asked to validate and expand on topics. The following issues were highlighted by the participants as most relevant:
• Justice and equity
• How decisions are made
• Competing needs and priorities
• Epistemic justice
• Environmental impact
Asked to list issues that were missing, South African participants emphasised indigenous historic land ownership and indigenous knowledge systems or traditional environmental knowledge. These results, among others, set the South African Social Lab apart from the European Labs.
In a follow-up exercise, participants were tasked with finding solutions to the issues and concerns raised. The responses, depicted in FIGURE 1, ranged from the need for transparency and emotional awareness at an individual level, to decentralised, participatory research funding processes at international level.
• Justice and equity
• How decisions are made
• Competing needs and priorities
• Epistemic justice
• Environmental impact
Asked to list issues that were missing, South African participants emphasised indigenous historic land ownership and indigenous knowledge systems or traditional environmental knowledge. These results, among others, set the South African Social Lab apart from the European Labs.
In a follow-up exercise, participants were tasked with finding solutions to the issues and concerns raised. The responses, depicted in FIGURE 1, ranged from the need for transparency and emotional awareness at an individual level, to decentralised, participatory research funding processes at international level.