Responsible research and innovation (RRI)

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) can be described as both a concept and a programme for wider participation in science and technology. As a concept, RRI assumes that innovation requires significant input from the domains of ethics, politics, open science and education. As a programme, it has been associated with EU research policy since the early 2010s. RRI emerged from the intersection of several disciplinary and sectoral roads. It was part of a research policy that sought greater ethics and social responsibility in, and public engagement with, science and technology, with research insights from social studies of science and science and technology studies (STS). From about 2012 to the 2020s, RRI contained concepts and tools of particular relevance to public participation in innovation. Within this conceptualisation of public engagement or public participation, innovation depends on various publics, stakeholders, and public actors working together in its development to include the anticipation and expectations of these actors. This has relevance for science communication in that it is considered a ‘deep’ form of engagement that requires multiple registers of communication across many sectors.