Social labs as temporary intermediary learning organizations to help implement complex normative policies.:The case of Responsible Research and Innovation in European science governance

Purpose: This study aims to discuss science governance in Europe and the network of associated nonprofit institutions. The authors posit that this network, which comprises both (partial) learning organizations and non-learning organizations, has been observed to postpone taking up “responsibility” as an issue in science governance and funding decisions. Design/methodology/approach: This paper discusses the challenge of learning and policy implementation within the European science governance system. By exploring how learning on responsible innovation (RI) in this governance system can be provoked, it addresses the question how Senge’s insights in organizational learning can clarify discourses on and practices of RI and responsibility in research. This study explores the potential of a new organizational form, that of Social Labs, to support learning on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in standing governance organizations. Findings: This study concludes that Social Labs are a suitable format for enacting the five disciplines as identified by Senge, and a Social Lab may turn into a learning organization, be it a temporary one. Responsibility in research and innovation is conducive for learning in the setting of a Social Lab, and Social Labs act as intermediary organizations, which not merely pass on information among actors but also actively give substantive shape to what they convey from a practice-informed, normative orientation. Research limitations/implications: This empirical work on RRI-oriented Social Labs therefore suggests that Social Lab–oriented temporary, intermediary learning organizations present a promising form for implementing complex normative policies in a networked, nonhierarchical governance setting. Practical implications: Based on this research funding and governance organizations in research, policy-makers in other domains may take up and create such intermediary organizations to aid learning in (science) governance. Social implications: This research suggests that RRI-oriented Social Labs present a promising form for implementing complex normative policies, thus integrate learning on and by responsible practices in various governance settings. Originality/value: European science governance is characterized by a network of partial Learning Organization (LOs) and Non-Learning Organization (nLOs) who postpone decision-making on topics around “responsibility” and “solving societal challenges” or delegate authority to reviewers and individual actors, filtering possibilities for collaborative transformation toward RRI. social lab (SLs) are spaces that can address social problems or social challenges in an open, action-oriented and creative manner. As such, they may function as temporary, intermediary LOs bringing together diverse actors from a specific context to work on and learn about issues of science and society where standing organizations avoid doing so. Taken together, SLs may offer temporary organizational structures and spaces to move beyond top-down exercise of power or lack of real change to more open, deliberative and creative forms of sociopolitical coordination between multiple actors cutting across realms of state, practitioners of research and innovation and civil society. By taking the role of temporary LOs, they may support existing research and innovation organizations and research governance to become more flexible and adaptive.</p

Responsible Research and Innovation in H2020:Current Status and Steps Forward

The NewHoRRIzon project published its first policy brief in May 2018, coordinated and written by Robert Braun of the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) and co-authored by Michael Bernstein of GenØk – Centre for Biosafety with contributions from the NewHoRRIzon team, on the status of RRI in H2020. The policy brief aims at offering evidence based policy recommendations—informed by the first inputs of NewHoRRIzon research efforts across 19 social labs—to policy makers, journalists and interested researchers on the state of play of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in Horizon (H2020) and proposing immediate actions to consider for mainstreaming RRI in the next framework program, FP9. The early research highlights steps that the EU has already initiated to advance RRI in H2020 programming, such as including commitments in the founding regulation of the programme and establishing devoted activities through the Science with and for Society programme. However, findings also point to numerous challenges for widespread and sustained implementation across H2020 programming and projects. First results indicate a range of policies that could be pursued to build capacity of the European R&I enterprise to realize RRI. Our recommendations, among others, include: focus on excellence in terms of transparent and socially robust knowledge that is inclusive of stakeholder and citizen perspectives; capacity building and training of programme officers, evaluators, researchers, innovators, and stakeholders to learn more about ways that science and technology are embedded in society; and further investments in the development of “Key Performance Indicators” or other methods of monitoring and evaluating RRI implementation