JERRI User Brief: Policy Makers and Funders
Towards an Inclusive Responsible Innovation Eco-System
Today’s innovation
systems struggle to deliver solutions to societal problems. With the help of
JERRI and RRI we can advance inclusive responsible innovation eco-systems that
operate for and with society. POLICY MAKERS and FUNDERS can make
a significant contribution to the emergence
and stability of pioneering coalitions for
responsible research and innovation (RRI). On this website, we summarized five key aspects for a successful
transition towards a inclusive responsible innovation eco-system.
1. RRI EVIDENCE
- There is scientific evidence that RRI practices
such as ethical reflection, gender sensitivity,
open sharing of data and citizen participation
advance research and innovation excellence
and relevance which are key drivers within our
organisations. Funders can help change-agents
within our organisations to foster the transition to RRI by funding studies that provide such
evidence and promoting them in highly visible
ways within their own funding portals.
2. RRI EVALUATION
- RTOs depend on competitive funding and are
therefore highly receptive to the evaluation
criteria for public funding. Funders should
keep up the pressure by systematically
linking their funding rules to RRI. Already,
specific requests for RRI-related information,
e.g. on data protection, gender and ethical
aspects, have raised awareness. However,
in order to foster deep changes, just ticking
boxes is not enough. To inspire learning,
contractors should be engaged in a constructive dialogue with qualified evaluators
or dedicated contact persons. In addition,
integrating RRI into the excellence part of
research proposals rather than confining
it to specific sections will help spread the
perception of RRI as a natural component of
research excellence. In any case, it is vital that
evaluators are qualified in RRI.
3. RRI COMMUNICATION
- RRI can make significant contributions to
pressing issues in public debates and on policy agendas such as harnessing the benefits
of emerging technologies in accordance with
societal values or advancing progress towards
the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Rather than emphasising RRI as such, policy
actors should highlight the contributions it
can make as a core competence for addressing these issues.
4. RRI ORCHESTRATION
- On our JERRI learning journey, we realised
that each RRI dimension makes a specific
contribution to the overall goal of creating
desirable impact for and with society. It is
crucial that these specificities do not disappear under a fuzzy RRI umbrella concept. At
the same time, the full potential of RRI only
unfolds when all dimensions interact, e.g.
societal engagement and science education
go hand in hand with open data, while ethics
reflection and gender perspectives reinforce
each other. Funders should encourage such
RRI orchestration wherever possible and
actively counteract “RRI silos”.
5. RRI MAINSTREAMING
- Embedding RRI into organisational structures
is an iterative process that requires patience,
stamina and persistence. Projects like JERRI
that directly support institutional change
are extremely helpful as they provide space
for experimentation that is not usually
available in RTOs. Funders should be aware
that organisational change can happen in
unexpected ways and allow for deviations
from project plans. Funding units with specialised RRI agendas are important enablers
for advancing RRI knowledge and practices.
In addition, however, RRI practices should be embedded within all types of research and
innovation activities. RRI approaches like the
participation of society or impact reflection
require skills, time and resources. Funders
should provide specific funding for RRI-related
activities within classical research projects
(e.g. gender reflection workshop, citizen conference). Often the type of funding needed for
RRI deviates from classical research contracting practices. Funders should work together
with pioneering contractors to discuss
solutions to critical issues such as, e.g. the
payment of lay participants, or open contracts.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 709747.