Excellence in science and innovation for Europe by adopting the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - NewHoRRIzon (Excellence in science and innovation for Europe by adopting the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation)

Berichtszeitraum: 2019-11-01 bis 2021-09-30

NewHoRRIzon should assist stakeholder groups in research and innovation (R&I) to mainstream responsible research and innovation (RRI). RRI has been designed to enhance inclusive and democratic modes of conducting R&I to reflect the values of European society. NewHoRRIzon has mobilized hundreds of stakeholders in joint experimentation with and for modes of doing R&I. The project published high level scientific papers, policy briefings, booklets, and best practices, created a useful thinking tool for and a network of practitioners to reach its target.
Sharing responsibility: what is NewHoRRIzon about?
R&I have benefited our societies in numerous ways. Yet, scientific and technological developments have as well undesirable and/or unsustainable impact and/or give cause for public controversies. Thus, we need to find ways to better leverage R&I to address societal challenges without creating problems for current and future generations.
Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)
One way forward is to share responsibility and create a more democratic, inclusive, and open culture for R&I so that science and technology opportunities can be better realized with and for society. RRI activities try to provide new ways to think about and respond to these new opportunities. In practice, this means drawing on more diverse and inclusive ways of understanding and addressing problems, sharing knowledge, and empowering people to learn and work together. The aspiration of RRI is to contribute to excellent science and innovation for socially desirable, economically vibrant, and sustainable societies.
What has RRI achieved so far?
RRI builds on different academic traditions. One major achievement in the development of RRI was the inclusion of the six keys' approach to RRI (Public Engagement, Gender Equality, Science Education, Open Access, Ethics, Governance) in Horizon 2020. Furthermore, national R&I funders in some countries are pioneering efforts to sustain inclusive, open, reflective, and responsive R&I communities.
What is the ambition of NewHoRRIzon?
NewHoRRIzon sought to promote a strong integration of RRI into European and national R&I funding. Its objectives were to:
• Call together different stakeholders in R&I in 19 Social Labs for each part of Horizon 2020 to co-create social experiments that foster the uptake of RRI.
• Develop narratives and storylines on how to implement RRI; provide recommendations on how to better integrate RRI in- to the next European Framework Programme and beyond.
• Raise awareness, mainstream best practices, and share NewHoRRIzon results.
• Develop and disseminate a concept of Societal Readiness Thinking Tool (SRTT) of technology; and
• Create a sustainable RRI Network and RRI Ambassador Programme.
19 Social Labs
To achieve its objectives NewHoRRIzon started with a Visioning Conference in 2017. Thereafter, the project organized 19 Social Labs all around Europe — one for each programme line of Horizon 2020. Social Labs bring together people with shared interests in solving complex problems related to technology and society. Inviting people with a range of expertise from across society, the labs were creative, engaging spaces for collaborative experimentation.
What and when?
The Social Labs built on impulses from the Visioning Conference and a diagnosis of the current state of RRI in all parts of Horizon 2020. Each Social Lab hosted three workshops and a series of smaller additional activities and meeting formats. Participants co-created, prototyped and tested 59 pilot actions and activities to support RRI in their field. Selected participants of each Social Lab were invited to a cross-sectional exchange workshop.

The objective of NewHoRRIzon was to promote RRI in H2020 and beyond. NewHoRRIzon used several levers to achieve its prime goal:
In October 2017, it organized a “Visioning Conference RRI in H2020 and beyond” which involved more than 40 stakeholders to “generate a vision of a future R&I Support Framework that encourages, cultivates and drives responsible practices on all levels of the European R&I landscape”. Thereafter, NewHoRRIzon created 19 Social Labs which beside their main purpose to co-develop pilot actions for RRI promotion familiarized R&I stakeholders with RRI. Work started with a thorough diagnosis of the state of RRI in H2020 programme lines.
NewHoRRIzon developed in its Social Labs together with stakeholders, 59 tailor-made pilot actions that aimed at fostering RRI implementation. Work in the 19 NewHoRRIzon Social Labs started in early spring 2018, involved altogether 754 participants and continued until October 2020.
The Social Labs started with the first series of workshops that involved stakeholders from R&I. They generated 58 first ideas for pilot actions to support RRI in different R&I communities. The second series of workshops lasted from November 2018 to November 2019. Participants evaluated, continued to develop, or stopped initial pilot actions or created new ones. After this series of workshops a total of 59 tailor-made pilot actions were under development. The final series of workshops was organized between May 2019 and October 2020. Participants presented their 59 pilot actions and reflected on development and impact.
To provide a global perspective of RRI and disseminate information about RRI beyond the EU, NewHoRRIzon involved researchers from Columbia, India, and the West Indies. The project worked with these researchers, arranged workshop and published Policy brief # 3 on concept of responsibility of research in India and Europe.
The NewHoRRIzon Consortium also co-developed in a stakeholder approach the “Societal Readiness Thinking Tool”, which asks researchers to reflect on responsibility and keys at four gates of a research project. The tool has been finalized and launched in October 2019. Policy Brief # 4 introduces into the SRTT which was already taken up by many users.
NewHoRRIzon tried to disseminate its results as widely as possible with a website, the online exhibition RRI.Ex an RRI Booklet, a final conference, a MOOC on Responsible Innovation, policy briefs academic publications, an edited volume and several brochures. Finally, NewHoRRIzon started several networks to promote the uptake of RRI, such as the Ambassador Programme, the RRI Network of research funding organizations and an informal NewHoRRIzon Community that developed from working together in Social Lab.

NewHoRRIzon delivered 59 Pilot Actions to address RRI challenges and foster the uptake of the concept. These address challenges in public engagement, inter- and trans-disciplinary research, governance, raising awareness for RRI and general capacity building, gender, and Open Access. Social Lab participants together with Consortium members developed, assessed, adapted, and disseminated pilot actions.
NewHoRRIzon provided an overview of RRI as practiced within the EU Framework Programmes and, together with its non-European partners, put it in global perspective.
NewHoRRIzon adopted, adapted, and successfully tested the Social Lab methodology for stakeholder involvement in RRI implementation.
NewHoRRIzon’s Societal Readiness Thinking Tool adopts a stage-gating inspired design that allows participants in research projects to reflect on the societal appropriateness of their work at critical stages in the project life cycle. To integrate RRI in national R&I funding programmes NewHoRRIzon started the RRI network.

Screenshot of the online exhibition RRI.EX which presents pilot actions and the project

Graphical presentation of the 19 Social Labs

Project Consortium at Kick Off Meeting, Vienna, May 2017

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - NewHoRRIzon (Excellence in science and innovation for Europe by adopting the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation)

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