Assessing responsible innovation training

There is broad agreement that one important aspect of responsible innovation (RI) is to provide training on its principles and practices to current and future researchers and innovators, notably including doctoral students. Much less agreement can be observed concerning the question of what this training should consist of, how it should be delivered and how it could be assessed. The increasing institutional embedding of RI leads to calls for the alignment of RI training with training in other subjects. One can therefore observe a push towards the official assessment of RI training, for example in the recent call for proposals for centres for doctoral training by UK Research and Innovation. This editorial article takes its point of departure from the recognition that the RI community will need to react to the call for assessment of RI training. It provides an overview of the background and open questions around RI training and assessment as a background of examples of RI training assessment at doctoral level. There is unlikely to be one right way of assessing RI training across institutions and disciplines, but we expect that the examples provided in this article can help RI scholars and practitioners orient their training and its assessment in ways that are academically viable as well as supportive of the overall aims of RI

Climatic control on palaeohydrology and cyclical sediment distribution in the Plio-Quaternary deposits of the Guadix Basin (Betic Cordillera, Spain)

A cyclical pattern can be observed in the central sector of the Guadix Basin (southern Spain) in the Late Pliocene-Quaternary alluvial fan deposits prograding into its axial valley. A climatic significance has been attributed to this cyclicity on the basis of sedimentological and preliminary isotopic studies. The progradation phases of the alluvial fans are here attributed to more arid time intervals in which the vegetation cover would be less developed, erosion and sediment supply would be higher, and base level would be lower. In contrast, the time intervals during which the fluvial system sediments dominated the area are inferred to be wetter and base level higher, with vegetation cover retaining the soils and preventing erosion. Permanent water supply to the river would therefore facilitate the aggradation of the floodplain and prevent progradation of the fans. Starting from a litho-, bio- and magnetostratigraphical frame provided for the area, an age is assigned to the alternation of the reddish sediments of the transverse alluvial fans and the greyish to white fluvio-lacustrine sediments of the axial drainage system. A cyclicity of ca. 100 ky has been identified in most of the alluvial fan progradation phases, falling within Milankovitch high-frequency eccentricity periodicities. Correlation of the phases with insolation curves is accordingly discussed as a possible origin for the cyclicity. Finally, the results offer new insights into early hominin occupation patterns in the region, through the identification of predictable resources of permanent fresh water that would have remained available throughout the recorded time span (that includes the Early–Middle Pleistocene transition) even during times of aridification.The study was supported by the Project CGL2009-07830/BTE and the Working Group RNM-369JA

Imagining the future through revisiting the past:the value of history in thinking about R(R)I's possible future(s)

Despite reflexivity being held up as a core pillar of Responsible Research and Innovation (R(R)I), actors in the field have yet to consider the importance of R(R)I’s history. Acknowledging the various histories of the field, not only the ones that are told but also the ones that could be told, is necessary in order to meet the requirement of reflexivity. Inspired by the notion of ANTi-history, I therefore propose an alternative historiography. Based on ethnographic and archival research, I trace some of the interactions between early iterations of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Technology Assessment (TA) which do not regularly feature as a part of R(R)I’s established history, drawing attention to potentially ‘forgotten’ or ‘neglected’ histories. I also propose the Appropriate Technology (AT) movement as an ‘alternative’ forebear of R(R)I. By bringing lesser known histories of R(R)I into the foreground, I argue that the interpretative richness offered by empirical historical analysis can provide insights for thinking about R(R)I’s possible future(s)

BOOK REVIEW: Responsibility beyond innovation

Review of Responsibility Beyond Growth. A Case For Responsible Stagnation, by Stevienna de Saille, Fabien Medvecky, Michiel van Oudheusden, Kevin Albertson, Effie Amanatidou, Timothy Birabi and Mario Pansera, Bristol University Press, Bristol, UK, 2020, pp. 168, £15.99 (hardback), ISBN 978152920817

“From an STS perspective”: An analysis of a recurring phrase in academic writing about science, technology, and society

Science and Technology Studies (STS) is a vast, interdisciplinary playground that invites diverse explorations of science, technology, and society relations. Despite this vastness, numerous authors in STS use a single phrase – “From an STS perspective” – when writing for peers and broader audiences. To claim “an STS perspective” suggests that there is some specific coherent, cohesive, and delineating perspective within STS. This claim seems to clash with the ideals of openness and multiplicity, which are taken as being central to STS scholarship. Taking this tension between singularity and plurality as its entry point, this paper examines how STS scholars recurrently use the term “STS perspective” in STS journal articles, STS handbooks, and STS conference abstracts over the past ten years. It considers two questions: 1) Does a close examination of the phrase give us a better sense of what STS means to STS scholars? 2) What does the phrase accomplish rhetorically, for instance in terms of signaling membership of a research community? The paper seeks to sensitize STS researchers to how they draw intellectual boundaries around STS and the rhetorical moves they make as scholars and writers – whether deliberately or inadvertently. It argues that the phrase “From an STS perspective” and variations of it, can be enabling of different articulations of STS. However, such phrases become meaningless tropes that risk excluding various perspectives (both STS and non-STS) from the conversation if its authors do not give some indication of what they mean

Functional deterioration in the month before hospitalisation is associated with in-hospital functional decline : an observational study

Introduction: Functional deterioration preceding acute hospital admission may be associated with poorer in-hospital outcomes. We sought to investigate the association between functional decline in the month preceding admission and in-hospital outcomes. Materials and methods: Consecutive patients admitted under geriatric medicine over 5 years were prospectively included. Pre-hospital decline was defined as decrease in Modified Barthel Index (MBI) between pre-morbid status (1 month prior) and admission. The primary outcome was in-hospital functional decline (decline in MBI and/or new assistance/aid to mobilise). Secondary outcomes included length-of-stay (LOS; highest quartile), in-hospital falls and death. Results: Amongst 1458 patients (mean age 82.0; 60.91% female), 76.89% (1121/1458) experienced pre-hospital MBI decline. On univariate logistic regression, pre-hospital MBI decline was associated with in-hospital functional decline (OR 15.83, p < 0.001). Adjusting for age, nursing home residence, pre-morbid MBI, in-hospital referral source, dementia, adverse drug reaction and number of active diagnoses, pre-hospital decline was independently associated with in-hospital functional decline (OR 15.22, CI 10.89–21.26, p < 0.001). On univariate analysis, those with pre-hospital decline had more in-hospital falls (OR 2. 91, p = 0.02). Adjusting for age, sex, dementia, number of active diagnoses, and ambulation, no strong association was observed between pre-hospital decline and in-hospital falls (OR 1.86, p = 0.08). Prolonged LOS ≥ 20 days was more common amongst patients with pre-hospital decline on univariate (OR 1.95, p < 0.001) but not adjusted analyses (p = 0.14). No association was observed with in-hospital death. Conclusion: Pre-hospital functional decline was associated with poorer in-hospital functional outcomes. Exploration of early interventions to optimise function in such patients is needed