Navigating Towards Shared Responsibility in Research and Innovation

The book is the result of the research project Res-AGorA (wwww.res-agora.eu). It brings together the main elements of Res-AGorA, ranging from the conceptual reasoning behind the applied research approach, theory-inspired empirical investigations, a selection of the rich case study programme and the lessons learned from their analyses, to our monitoring of RRI trends in 16 European countries, and our intensive co-construction process, through which the consortium was able to refine and eventually finalise the main output of the project. The Res-AGorA project Res-AGorA was a three-year, EU FP7 project (2013–2016) which has co-constructed a good-practice framework, the “Responsibility Navigator”, with practitioners and strategic decision makers. This framework facilitates reflective processes involving multiple stakeholders and policy-makers with the generic aim of making European research and innovation more responsible, responsive, and sustainable. This framework was developed based on three years of intensive empirical research comprising an extensive programme of in-depth case-studies, systematic “scientometric” literature analysis, country-level monitoring (RRI-Trends) and five broadbased co-construction stakeholder workshops. The resulting Res-AGorA Responsibility Navigator was conceived as a means to provide orientation without normatively steering research and innovation in a specific direction. Furthermore, Res-AGorA’s “Co-construction Method” is a collaborative methodology designed to systematically support and facilitate the practical use of the Responsibility Navigator with stakeholders. The Responsibility Navigator, the Co-construction Method and accompanying materials areready to use by actors who wish to navigate Research and Innovation towards Responsible Research and Innovation. This book provides an overview of the project’s journey, its conceptual underpinnings and main results.