Grounding RRI Actions to Achieve Institutional Change in European Research Funding and Performing Organisations

Project Information

GRACE

Grant agreement ID: 824521

DOI

10.3030/824521

Project closed

EC signature date 6 December 2018

Start date 1 January 2019

End date 31 December 2021

Funded under

• Develop the governance for the advancement of responsible research and innovation by all stakeholders, which is sensitive to society needs and demands and promote an ethics framework for research and innovation

Total cost

€ 1 499 965,00

EU contribution

€ 1 499 965,00

Coordinated by

FONDATION EUROPEENNE DE LA SCIENCE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GRACE (Grounding RRI Actions to Achieve Institutional Change in European Research Funding and Performing Organisations)

Reporting period: 2020-04-01 to 2021-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

GRACE was conceived to contribute to the effort of spreading and embedding RRI in the European Research Area (ERA). It aimed to create a specific approach and environment for six RPFOs (hereinafter: implementing organizations = IOs) to attain a cluster of well-defined institutional changes through the implementation of a set of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) Grounding Actions (GAs) with visible short-term impacts during the timespan of GRACE. A selection of GAs were formulated, coordinated into specific 8-year ‘Roadmaps towards RRI’ for each consortium IO; using the first three years – the GRACE project - for paving the way for the attainment of further and more complex institutional changes in the medium- and long-term period.
The GRACE approach provided assistance for the preparation of a potential rapid institutional change, within the frame of a specifically developed mutual learning process and a co-creation environment based on the support of co-operating organization that are experienced in RRI, specific RRI keys and/or institutional change.
The aim of the mutual learning process and co-creation approach was to facilitate a direct exchange among the project partners to learn from each other’s experiences. It provided skills on how to pursue institutional changes via inclusive participatory approaches, coping with resistances and obstacles.
GRACE also aimed at evaluating the GAs in terms of their capacity to induce institutional changes and to open up to further mid/longer-term institutional changes on the basis of well-established evaluation categories (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability) and by assessing the impacts of GAs on the basis of a set of indicators (MoRRI indicators & Sustainable Development Goals). The Roadmaps towards RRI were analysed both in terms of actual and potential future impacts.
The efficient communication and dissemination of the project results was developed with the aim of open sharing with the RRI community and further interested stakeholders, enhancing the overall impact of the project.
In this context, the GRACE results and outcomes provided evident on the role and significance of RRI. Collectively, they transfer the massage that implementing RRI in institutional governance approaches does not mean adding new tasks and duties to the ordinary research and innovation activities, but the availability of a new set of resources and opportunities to improve what is already there in a more inclusive way.

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

GRACE focused on achieving the 7 well-defined, but overlapping project objectives:
O1: Identify, design and implement a set of SMART Grounding Actions (GAs) with visible short-term impacts at six consortium RPFOs implementing organzations during the timespan of GRACE.
O2: Integrate this selection of GAs into a specific 8-year ‘Roadmaps towards RRI’ for each consortium IO
O3: Test and develop new partnerships to assure the achievement of the project objectives, the sustainability of its outputs, and favour the engagement of all societal actors as of the “quadruple helix” model.
O4: Learn and capitalize from the GAs via the setting-up of a mutual-learning framework bringing together IOs and co-operating organisations, as well as IOs with IOs.
O5: Evaluating and assessing the impacts of the GAs in terms of their capacity to induce institutional changes and to open up to further mid/longer-term institutional changes
O6: Co-ordinating the actions and ensuring high-quality standards throughout the project by adequate management processes
O7: Sharing and exploiting the projects outputs is addressed with the active participation of all partners throughout the project.
The process of identifying GAs and integrating them in the 8-year Institutional Roadmaps functioned hand-in-hand with the identification of key stakeholders to 1, stimulate the engagement of all societal actors as of the “quadruple helix” model and their joint participation in the R&I process, 2, assure the achievement of institutional changes towards RRI with sustainable effects, 3, meet the project objectives and 4, the long-term sustainability of its outputs.
All the organizations acknowledged the importance of public engagement in general and the responsibility of science to society. The GRACE evaluation scheme included process evaluation and impact assessment. The initially identified indicators offered the general inspirational framework for the identification of personalized indicators for the IOs in the context of the GRACE activities. The project and its outputs were promoted via regular updates on its website, activity on social media, participation in several events, synergies established and cured with different SwafS ecosystems and sister RRI projects and further developments.

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)

• Seven autonomous guidance documents called ‘State-of-the-art review of documented experiences’ aimed to assist implementing organisations to acquire basic knowledge on RRI-related concepts and practices, both in general and for the single RRI keys
• A ‘Basic scheme for self-assessment’ for the use of the implementing organisations to make a preliminary self-assessment helping the definition and design of the Grounding Actions and the development of the first version of the 8-year ‘Roadmap towards RRI’
• GRACE Mutual Learning Plan defining the approach, contents and activities of the mutual learning process.
• GRACE Evaluation Reflection Tool and guidance how to use it. The tool provides help to develop and elaborate GA ideas before setting the institutional ‘Roadmap towards RRI’ and commencing the implementation, as well as it is a tool to return to if in case changes to GAs need to be discussed.
• GRACE Evaluation Scheme describes the purpose, theoretical anchoring, and methodological setup of the evaluation of the Grounding Actions. The evaluation consists of two parts; a process evaluation and an impact assessment.
• A ‘Roadmap towards RRI’ framework
• Six ‘Roadmaps towards RRI’ for the six consortium IOs with well-defined Grounding Actions and an implementation plan for 8 years with sustainability plan
• Evaluation and impact assessment reports (final)

Facilitating the understanding of the individual organizational level of the responsibility of science for society and the adaptation of the individual organizational pathways to this objective was an overriding principle throughout the GRACE project.
All GRACE activities focused on triggering systemic institutional changes primarily in the consortium partner organizations, but also beyond. It is considered one of the most powerful impacts of the project that consortium the implementing organizations understood the need to embrace governance related changes to facilitate and render the specific RRI-key related changes institutional.
The GRACE activities and their impacts were thoroughly evaluated by a specifically developed fit-for-purpose evaluation methodology. As of the impact evaluation, the project partners were successful in creating local impact in their own organisations and in their immediate networks. Moreover, the project evidently contributed to reaching the overall objectives measured by general indicators such as the achievement of increased organisational support, the encouragement of and the deployment of processes for monitoring RRI-related issues apart from the numeric indicators of institutional changes.

GRACE Reflection Tool