Responsible Research and Innovation

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) describes a research and innovation process that takes into account effects and potential impacts on the environment and society. The approach is and has been included in European Framework Programmes and has been developed in scientific and technological publications in journals and conferences, as well as in projects. By June 2014, there were at least a dozen international research projects, most of them funded or co-funded by the European Commission, that were involved in developing a Responsible Research and Innovation governance framework.

There are several definitions of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). RRI "refers to the comprehensive approach of proceeding in research and innovation in ways that allow all stakeholders that are involved in the processes of research and innovation at an early stage (A) to obtain relevant knowledge on the consequences of the outcomes of their actions and on the range of options open to them and (B) to effectively evaluate both outcomes and options in terms of societal needs and moral values and (C) to use these considerations (under A and B) as functional requirements for design and development of new research, products and services." The European Commission (EC) described RRI in an earlier publication as a framework that consisted of six key action points:

RRI can be defined as "a transparent, interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually responsive to each other with a view to the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability of the innovation process and its marketable products in order to allow a proper embedding of scientific and technological advances in our society."

According to Owen et al. (2012) there are three main features of RRI that overlap to a great extent with the EC Framework:

According to Stilgoe et al. (2013), RRI has four dimensions:

RRI is best understood as a higher level responsibility that aims to shape, develop, and align existing and future research and innovation-related processes. The concept is applied mainly for science and technology-based research and innovation, in particular in the area of emerging technologies—notably nanotechnologies, Information and communications technology (ICT), genomics, synthetic biology and geo-engineering. However, some authors state that RRI could also encompass financial instruments, public policy or community innovations, distribution, service or system innovations.

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