Paper long abstract:

Responsible research and innovation as a concept holds the ambition to steer scientific and innovation endeavors towards more societally desirable ends, incorporating societal perspectives along the way. The move towards RRI entails a shift from individual to collective responsibility. Responsibility is regarded as responsible process and acceptable outcome. A major challenge is to decide when a research and innovation project is to be considered responsible with respect to process and outcome. The EU FP7 project RRI Tools crafted a working definition for RRI consisting of a list of process requirements and outcomes. Here, we use this conceptualization of RRI to evaluate the Dutch RRI project "Neurosciences in Dialogue" that focused on the responsible use of neuroimaging in the respective domains of healthcare, education and justice & security, domain of security and justice. In this project researchers and societal stakeholders have been involved in an interactive learning process to stimulate developments towards shared desirable applications with few, or at least manageable, negative impacts. The formulation of context-specific challenges will help us to critically delineate the key aspects of RRI and to assess the value for each. In remaining critical of the added value of RRI as a concept, and the key requirements through which RRI can be made practical and feasible, there is the opportunity to circumvent RRI becoming business as usual.