Abstract
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RESPONSIBILITY: Innovative Interactive Tools to Facilitate Further Cooperation on Responsible Research and Innovation
A European Union (EU)-funded project (
As a reference framework, the project partners began by asking themselves two key questions: what are the benefits of an RRI community and, most crucially, how can an RRI community be built most effectively and with the most added value for stakeholders?
In order to begin answering these questions, the project started in its early phase to collect and disseminate best practice, amass a number of applicable case studies, and begin building a network of scientists to strengthen collaboration on RRI issues in many interdisciplinary fields.
From here, the project was able to begin putting in motion the creation process for its two key aims: the construction of the Forum and the Observatory.
The RESPONSIBILITY Forum
The RESPONSIBILITY Forum is an online tool that is self-regulated, transparent, remote, and open to all interested stakeholders. The main objective of the Forum is to be an interface between many different actors interested in RRI, including researchers, policy makers, civil society, and industry representatives and CSOs. The Forum will also prepare RRI outcomes that are relevant to both political actors and industry.
However, the Forum is conceived not to be just a simple talking shop for RRI stakeholders. The project has also envisioned it will allow participants to advertise actively for new RRI projects, submit new calls for applications, post job vacancies, search for new funding sources, and publicize calls for partnerships in new projects.
“The aim for the project is to provide an incentive for users to visit the site, and subsequently raise its profile amongst RRI-interested stakeholders,” commented project team member, Mohamad Ajami.
Discussions that take place in the Forum, and their outcomes, are then planned to provide the necessary content for the project's second tool, the Observatory.
The RESPONSIBILITY Observatory
The RESPONSIBILITY Observatory of Responsible Research and Innovation will be established as a permanent point of reference and actual fore-thinking with regards to the current concept of, and developments in, the field of RRI.
With RRI evolving rapidly as a concept due to new technologies and changing attitudes, the Observatory is designed to be a single repository for RRI literature, projects, and initiatives that already exist. The tool uses an built-in search engine that will allow users to obtain an overview of the most read and most linked documents. Entries into the database are also tagged and archived in a manner that meets the needs of particular RRI actors.
Like the Forum, the Observatory is also meant to have an interactive element, so it is designed to allow any interested stakeholder to upload and/or discuss a particular RRI topic or discussion. The Observatory will also allow researchers to identify areas in need of more detailed research, and it will identify where public engagement on particular issues might be relevant.
“What makes the tool so special is that it doesn't just provide an observatory for the RRI community, but it also takes advantage of the RRI community itself—it uses the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ as a virtual place to clarify, develop, and discuss the concept of RRI,” project coordinator Dr. Aki Zaharya Menevidis said.
The Forum and Observatory tools developed by RESPONSIBILITY will act as crucial lynchpins over the coming years in furthering the development and dissemination of RRI principles and practices across both the policy and scientific and research fields.