Mainstreaming Responsible Research and Innovation
While the future of RRI in Horizon Europe is still rather uncertain, it is not as bleak as it appeared in 2019. Several advocates in the ERA have called for higher visibility of RRI in “Horizon Europe”. Moreover, the Orientations towards the first Strategic Plan for Horizon Europe keeps the door open for RRI and even indicates a ’home’ for RRI in Horizon Europe (in Reforming and Enhancing the European R&I system)[1]. However, there is still a need to continue to reinforce the importance of RRI and to help show how it can be implemented widely in Horizon Europe.
This is why a group of RRI scholars and practitioners have joined in the effort of supporting the visibility and operationalisation of RRI in “Horizon Europe”. The core group consists of:
Ellen-Marie Forsberg
Ellen-Marie is Managing Director of NORSUS Norwegian Institute for Sustainability Research and has also a minor research component at the institute. She has a doctorate in applied ethics from the University of Oslo in 2007.
Ellen-Marie is a former Head of Research at the Work Research Institute at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), Oslo, Norway, where she also built up and led the Oslo Research Group on Responsible Innovation. She coordinated the European Commission Horizon 2020 project Responsible Research and Innovation in Practice (RRI-Practice; see www.rri-practice.eu), the 7th Framework programme project EST-Frame, and other Norwegian and international projects. She has been an expert on a number of committees in Norway and internationally.
Her research has mostly focused on ethics and governance of emerging technologies, responsible research and innovation, agricultural and food ethics, and research ethics.
Twitter: @EllenForsberg
Alexander Gerber
Prof. Alexander Gerber is Programme Director for Science Communication at Germany’s international Rhine-Waal University, and Research Director of the extramural Institute for Science and Innovation Communication (inscico). Before returning to academia, the scientific entrepreneur was founder and editor-in-chief of InnoVisions Magazine, and Head of Marketing & Communications at Fraunhofer (ICT) for seven years.
The spectrum of his research crosses what is often seen as the divide between scholarship and practice, working towards science communication as an agent of social innovation and social justice. The vision: science and innovation co-producing knowledge with their stakeholders, in a responsible, inclusive and sustainable way.
As of March 2020, this work includes work package leadership in four EU Horizon 2020 projects (RRING, GRRIP, TeRRIFICA, Ô).
Alex also coordinated “NUCLEUS” (see nucleus-project.eu), one of the largest RRI projects to date.
His publications [ORCID]
Twitter: @inscico
Siri Granum Carson
Siri Granum Carson is Director of NTNU Oceans, a strategic research area at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, where she is also a Professor at the Programme for Applied Ethics. Siri is a philosopher by training, with a PhD in philosophy of agency. Her main research area is corporate social responsibility, focusing on the role of business organization in a globalized economy, specifically in the Nordic context. She is the project leader for AFINO, a Norwegian network for responsible innovation, connecting a number of Norwegian research and business organizations in the pursuit of a more sustainable innovation system.
Her publications [ResearchGate]
Twitter: @OceansNTNU
Acknowledgement:
We are grateful for having received funding from the Research Council of Norway to work for strengthening RRI in Horizon Europe.
We also collaborate with a number of RRI practitioners and scholars; see ‘Resources’.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/files/orientations-towards-first-strategic-plan-horizon-europe_en
rri-in-horizon-europe.net 