Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EnRRICH (Enhancing Responsible Research and Innovation through Curricula in Higher Education (EnRRICH))
Reporting period: 2016-07-01 to 2018-03-31
EnRRICH concluded that engaging students in research with CSOs is vital to build capacity for the participation of citizens in research agendas. The interim evaluation of H2020 identified a need for innovation, collaboration and more impact through mission-orientation and citizen involvement in the FP. EnRRICH has demonstrated that embedding RRI in academic curricula can make a significant contribution to addressing this need. It has also concluded that the role of mediation mechanisms such as Science Shops is vital in supporting the work of educators and the participation of CSOs in RRI processes. RRI in higher education curricula and Science Shops are important in that they can help Europe respond to urgent problems by up-skilling early stage researchers in societal engagement and impact. Building higher education curricula to develop the capacity of young people to be engaged, collaborative, innovative and disruptive as both researchers and citizens is vital in helping to solve societal problems and address Sustainable Development Goals. Additionally, doing RRI through curricula helps build citizen involvement by engaging CSOs in research processes through student projects. This builds research capacity in CSOs, responds to their research questions and puts their concerns on the agenda of future researchers and academic staff, whilst producing impact through the research outputs and creating social change. There is an appetite amongst both educators and policymakers for further development of RRI in academic curricula, and the EnRRICH consortium has concluded that this is an area where further investment would reap significant results.
Resources have been produced to develop RRI in academic curricula and the EnRRICH website and will be maintained in the long term on www.livingknowledge.org. Care was taken to ensure that resources produced were useful to the relevant target audience. Resources produced to help educators who are interested in including RRI in their own curricula include a definition of RRI in higher education curricula and a peer reviewed academic paper to begin to build an academic bedrock in the teaching and learning world. The EnRRICH Tool offers a language for developing learning objectives whilst the case studies and promising practices give real practical applied examples of where RRI has been embedded. Resources were also produced for new and emerging Science Shops including a report on examining Science Shops as mechanisms for introducing RRI in higher education curricula and a promotional leaflet. The evaluation reports provide feedback on the learning from these pilots as do the deliverable reports from the piloting workpackage. The project also produced policy briefs designed to help articulate a case to policymakers for the inclusion of RRI in academic curricula. These briefs were workshopped and discussed with stakeholders ahead of publication and have already been used. Lastly the EnRRICH consortium has been very active in using conferences to engage with a wide range of stakeholders. Besides the project conference which attracted 230 attendees from across stakeholder groups, partners attended over 50 conferences and events.