Paper long abstract:

Developing better technology and innovation processes and outcomes that reflect both excellent science and the incorporation of societal values and needs is increasingly framed as Responsible Research and Innovation. RRI involves a shift in responsibility; a shift of thinking in terms of individualist and consequentialist notions of responsibility to thinking in terms of collective and distributed responsibility. In RRI literature, responsibility is understood as responsible process and acceptable outcome. In practice, a methodology to identify and classify responsible research and innovation efforts still misses. Within the EU FP7 project RRI Tools, we started the development of such methodology by identifying key characteristics of RRI in terms of process requirements and outcomes and integrating them into a working definition of RRI.

We separate outcomes of RRI into learning outcomes (engaged publics, responsible actors and responsible institutions), research and innovation outcomes (ethically acceptable research and innovation, sustainable research and innovation and societally desirable research and innovation) and societal outcomes (solutions to Grand Challenges). The process requirements refer to the research and innovation process itself (diversity), the relationship of research and innovation to the societal context (inclusion, meaningful openness), the possible and desirable future outcomes (anticipation, reflection) and the aspired courses of action (responsiveness, adaptive change). Operationalisation of these outcomes and process requirements will provide a basis for the identification and classification of practices in RRI.