Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RECIPES (REconciling sCience, Innovation and Precaution through the Engagement of Stakeholders)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-04-01 do 2022-06-30
The RECIPES (“REconciling sCience, Innovation and Precaution through the Engagement of Stakeholders”) project links the precautionary principle with the notion of ‘responsible innovation’ and highlights the principle as an important enabler for the implementation of this anticipatory and inclusive approach to the governance of research and innovation. RECIPES overall objective was to develop tools and guidelines to ensure the precautionary principle is applied to foster responsible technological innovation. RECIPES worked closely with stakeholders through interviews, workshops, webinars and other methods of stakeholder engagement, such as scenario workshops and digital platforms for stakeholder participation.
One of the key messages of the project’s main outcome, the Guidance for the Future Application of the Precautionary Principle in the EU, is that the precautionary principle unfolds its full potential by serving in a double role. As a legal principle and safeguard, it permits policy-makers and legislators to manage uncertain risks by preventing irreversible damage. As a compass and policy principle in research and innovation, it can trigger upstream debates and research about the potential impacts of emerging technologies and related innovation pathways, lead to adjustments in innovation development and stimulate responsible innovation. The RECIPES Guidance highlights that the overall process of risk governance should be precautionary in the sense that it is consistently sensitive to uncertainties and knowledge gaps, as well as to potentially serious harm. Consequentially, anticipation, inclusion, reflexivity, and responsiveness are key principles for technology governance in the EU.
RECIPES demonstrated the precautionary principle’s pronounced relevance at the international, EU and national level. The project’s empirical insights from the application of the precautionary principle in different areas both at European and at Member State level have contributed towards a deep and analytically sound understanding of the tensions and synergies between precaution and innovation. This knowledge was essential to solve the perceived tensions between precaution, innovation and science.
Guided by this vision, RECIPES developed the Guidance for the Application of the Precautionary Principle in the EU in co-operation with stakeholders and through a series of co-creation processes and review workshops. The guidance advises on how to deal responsibly with uncertain risks in the development and implementation of technology in the EU. The target groups are primarily EU policy makers, EU agencies, and EU policy support organizations and bodies that are concerned with risk regulation or the governance of science, technology and innovation. RECIPES also developed sector-specific recommendations for the application of the precautionary principle whilst encouraging responsible innovation, elaborating on what the lessons would mean for two policy sectors in the EU.
The RECIPES reports, information material, including factsheets of the case studies, policy briefs and videos, as well as the RECIPES end-product, the Guidance for future application of the precautionary principle are publicly available on the RECIPES website (https://recipes-project.eu/).The RECIPES Guidance on the future application of the precautionary principle is also available on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7015025).
RECIPES partners published (sub)results in academic journals and presented the project results at high-profile events, as for example key notes at European events. Furthermore, RECIPES partners integrated the research findings in teaching curricula. The RECIPES guidance has also been picked up by key actors who distributed the Guidance among their networks. Finally, recent or new projects are already building on RECIPES findings and approaches (BeeCaution and REAL DEAL).
RECIPES researchers expect that their research will improve evidence-informed risk governance in the EU by providing a useful tool to help regulators and decision-makers when dealing with new and emerging technology-related risks well beyond the RECIPES case studies.