Building a responsible innovation toolkit as project legacy

This article explores whether and in what way it is possible to employ toolkits for responsible research and innovation (RRI toolkits) as mechanisms for ensuring the legacy of RRI in research projects. Based on a review of the concept of responsible research and innovation as well as existing toolkits in the area, the article offers an account of the development of an RRI toolkit in the context of the EU- funded Human Brain Project. This toolkit is designed to integrate insights and practices of responsible research and innovation developed over a 10 year period into the project legacy, the EBRAINS research infrastructure. The article suggests that toolkits have the potential to contribute to ensuring a long- lasting legacy of work undertaken in responsible research and innovation, but that this potential requires further support from institutions and the broader research environment to become realized

Linking brain structure, activity and cognitive function through computation

Understanding the human brain is a “Grand Challenge” for 21st century research. Computational approaches enable large and complex datasets to be addressed efficiently, supported by artificial neural networks, modeling and simulation. Dynamic generative multiscale models, which enable the investigation of causation across scales and are guided by principles and theories of brain function, are instrumental for linking brain structure and function. An example of a resource enabling such an integrated approach to neuroscientific discovery is the BigBrain, which spatially anchors tissue models and data across different scales and ensures that multiscale models are supported by the data, making the bridge to both basic neuroscience and medicine. Research at the intersection of neuroscience, computing and robotics has the potential to advance neuro-inspired technologies by taking advantage of a growing body of insights into perception, plasticity and learning. To render data, tools and methods, theories, basic principles and concepts interoperable, the Human Brain Project (HBP) has launched EBRAINS, a digital neuroscience research infrastructure, which brings together a transdisciplinary community of researchers united by the quest to understand the brain, with fascinating insights and perspectives for societal benefits

From Responsible Research and Innovation to Responsibility by Design

open access articleDrawing on more than eight years working to implement Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in the Human Brain Project, a large EU-funded research project that brings together neuroscience, computing, social sciences, and the humanities, and one of the largest investments in RRI in one project, this article offers insights on RRI and explores its possible future. We focus on the question of how RRI can have long-lasting impact and persist beyond the time horizon of funded projects. For this purpose, we suggest the concept of “responsibility by design” which is intended to encapsulate the idea of embedding RRI in research and innovation in a way that makes it part of the fabric of the resulting outcomes, in our case, a distributed European Research Infrastructure

Building a responsible innovation toolkit as project legacy

This article explores whether and in what way it is possible to employ toolkits for responsible research and innovation (RRI toolkits) as mechanisms for ensuring the legacy of RRI in research projects. Based on a review of the concept of responsible research and innovation as well as existing toolkits in the area, the article offers an account of the development of an RRI toolkit in the context of the EU- funded Human Brain Project. This toolkit is designed to integrate insights and practices of responsible research and innovation developed over a 10 year period into the project legacy, the EBRAINS research infrastructure. The article suggests that toolkits have the potential to contribute to ensuring a long- lasting legacy of work undertaken in responsible research and innovation, but that this potential requires further support from institutions and the broader research environment to become realized

Breaking barriers for a bio-based economy : Interactive reflection on monitoring water quality

In a transition to a bio-based economy new ways of monitoring waste-streams and water quality can then contribute to sustainable production processes. As niche innovation, new ways of monitoring face systemic barriers. The present article examines how barriers to change manifest in discursive practices with differing normative attachments and implications. A frame analysis revealed two competing frames: (1) the dominant ‘norm water’ frame in which thresholds of chemical compounds are used to set policy targets; and (2) thecontesting ‘living water’ frame, which entails innovative continuous monitoring tools that take into account the ecological effects of chemical compounds. We introduce the concept of interactive reflectivity, as a discursive tool, to collaboratively visualize, scrutinize and overcome discursive barriers to innovations. The stakeholder dialogue shows how systemic barriers are uttered discursively in niches – or other forms of responsible research and innovation – and may hinder change even at the niche-level

Dialogue as a tool for societal valorization of environmental and industrial biotechnology

In this project we explored and experimented with how a meaningful dialogue can be operationalized most effectively in the terms of enhancing societal valorisation of environmental and industrial biotechnology. We did so in the context of the Dutch research consortium BE-Basic. The project is co-funded project by the CSG and BE-Basic, and runs until January 2016. This report presents activities and results of the first two years, for both the PhD and the Postdoc project. In order to enhance societal valorisation of ecogenomics-based processes and synthetic biology we formulated and implemented an interactive communication plan for organizing recurrent dialogues between actors in science and society. For this we: Developed a new framework for using dialogue as a tool for valorisation Developed novel tools for communication among scientists and between scientists and societal stakeholders Conducted 79 interviews Organised a focus group with citizens on synthetic biology Organised a focus group with scientist on biobased monitoring Organised a dialogue session with various stakeholders on biobased monitoring of water quality Organised nine focus groups with citizens on the biobased economy in the domains of biofuels, water-quality and waste as an energy resource Assessed and validated process, outcome and impact of the interaction and communication efforts as initiated through this project Disseminated our findings through academic publications and conferences, educational programs and non-academic talks and publications Initiated a valorisation track as part of project F08.002.01 (Integrated effect-based risk management for sustainable bio-based production processes (dRISK)). In this project we implemented a three-phase reflection-action method that previously had been tested in the Ecogenomics consortium. We fine-tuned this with the implementation of a “reprocessing-factory dialogue tool” to facilitate the creation of practical wisdom through the formation of communities of practice (CoPs). In the first and second phase, we analyzed relevant stakeholders and barriers within the BE Basic consortium and among its stakeholders. Barriers were found on three levels of cooperation: first, internally within the Flagships of BE-Basic; second, between the Flagships; third, between scientists and external stakeholders such as policymakers, regulatory agencies, and industry. One important barrier for the researchers, both on fundamental level and on a more applied level, was their interpretation of the policy context as suspicious and sometimes even hostile towards biobased monitoring tools (as opposed to the current chemical based monitoring tools). In conclusion we found barriers stemming from differences in interests, in interpretations, (academic) culture, and from the structure of BE-Basic. The third phase of this research project is still on going. What we have learned so far is that the identified barriers can be made productive for actors to reflect on their roles and on more or less explicit norms of biobased processes. Reflection was stimulated by the use of forecasting exercises, and as a result we saw the first signs of the emergence of a community of practice and the creation of practical wisdom. Societal valorisation can therefore be seen as the process of creation of phronesis (practical wisdom). From the PhD project on synthetic biology we learned that synthetic biology is not a topic of discussion in society, and that current discourse is limited to the scientific realm. Preliminary findings show that visions of the future and societal concerns (including visions on possible win-win situations and possible end-users) are important in designing a successful dialogu