responsible innovation - Tag Archive

International Handbook on Responsible Innovation: Launch Event in Manchester

1 Reply Jonny Hankins

As you may see from the cover, I have a book newly released and would like to invite all readers (who can) to join me in Manchester to launch it.

The event opens with two keynote addresses, the first from from Rene von Schomberg and the second from myself, Jonathan Hankins. A Series of short panel presentations follow with an open discussion involving panel members, speakers and audience. Wine and nibbles reception to close.

INVITATION

You are all very welcome to join us on Wednesday 27 November 2019 at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, (Rm BS125) to launch and discuss the new:

International Handbook on Responsible Innovation: A Global Resource

Edited by René von Schomberg, Directorate General for Research and Innovation, European Commission, Belgium and Guest Professor, Technical University Darmstadt, Germany and Jonathan Hankins, The Bassetti Foundation, Italy.

The Handbook constitutes a global resource for the fast growing interdisciplinary research and policy communities addressing the challenge of driving innovation towards socially desirable outcomes. This book brings together well-known authors from the US, Europe and Asia who develop conceptual and regional perspectives on responsible innovation as well as exploring the prospects for further implementation of responsible innovation in emerging technological practices ranging from agriculture and medicine, to nanotechnology and robotics. The emphasis is on the socio-economic and normative dimensions of innovation including issues of social risk and sustainability.

Full reference:

 Schomberg, R & Hankins, J. eds International Handbook on Responsible Innovation : A Global Resource,’ Cheltenham UK and Northampton USA:  Edward Elgar . ISBN 978 1 78471 88 5

AGENDA 

3pm Arrival & Coffee

3.15 Introduction & Welcome

3:20 Keynote – René von Schomberg

3:45 Keynote – Jonathan Hankins

4pm Panel Presentations and Open Discussion 

5pm Wine reception

6pm close

This is a free event. All are welcome. Please register and claim your ticket here

Readers who have been following the series on Responsible Innovation will know the name of Von Schomberg too, and there is much more to come on that front. This is one not to be missed if you are in the area.

The event is hosted by SEEG, Manchester Metropolitan University’s Sustainable and Ethical Enterprise Group, and MIOIR the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research based at the University of Manchester Alliance Business School. The links will take you to places of wonder, full of interesting browsing.

British Standards Institution Call for Comments: Responsible Innovation

Leave a reply Jonny Hankins

Those of you interested in how the responsible innovation debate has begun to take hold in the business world might like to take a look at a call for input from the British Standards Institution. They are developing a Standard on Responsible Innovation.

Many of you may have seen the Kite Mark symbol above on various things you have bought but maybe not thought about what it is or how it is awarded, so here I offer a bit of insider information.

The British Standards Institute has published a draft of a standard on responsible innovation and await (your) comments, which can be made (after free registration) until 29 October 2019 as part of a typical timeline for the development of a published Standard. The draft document is published through the BSI website linked above with a view to amendments on the draft and publication in 2020.

What are Standards?

Taken from the BSI website, Standards are described as:

an agreed way of doing something. It could be about making a product, managing a process, delivering a service or supplying materials – standards can cover a huge range of activities undertaken by organizations and used by their customers.

The distilled wisdom of people with expertise in their subject matter and who know the needs of the organizations they represent – people such as manufacturers, sellers, buyers, customers, trade associations, users or regulators.

They are designed for voluntary use, you’re not forced to follow a set of rules that make life harder for you, you’re offered ways to do your work better.

Standards are knowledge. They are powerful tools that can help drive innovation and increase productivity. They can make organizations more successful and people’s everyday lives easier, safer and healthier.

The British Standards Institution

The role of the BSI is described on the website as:

the UK’s National Standards Body (NSB), representing UK economic and social interests across all European and international standards organizations. Working with many different industries, businesses, governments and consumers to develop British, European and international standards, that are developed by dedicated panels of experts, within technical committees.

A standard undergoes various stages of development, beginning with the Proposal stage, which is aimed at affirming the market need for a standard. Once a proposal for a standard is approved, the relevant panel of experts in the area is tasked with drafting the standard, as per internationally agreed principles of standards development.

As soon as a draft is mature enough, it undergoes public consultation when it is made available for anyone to view and comment (Public comment stage, the stage that this draft is now in). Every public comment BSI receives on a draft standard is considered by the relevant panel of experts and BSI staff and the final published standard is updated as appropriate.

Following public consultation and before a draft can become a published standard, it undergoes further edits until the panel is satisfied with its quality and only when consensus has been reached.

The standard is a specification, working practices are described that the business can aim to work towards. It is a sort of tutoring system to help businesses work towards a set of goals, in this case a responsible innovation approach.

So if you have time why not have a look at what they are proposing? And maybe comment. It might help its development and even work towards making the world a more responsible place.

The EU Vision on Research and Innovation

Leave a reply Jonny Hankins

The European Union has a system of research and innovation funding that is divided into blocks of time. We are now coming to the end of Horizon 2020, started in 2014 and about to close next year, and over this period the EU has invested somewhere in the region of 80 billion Euros in innovation and research across the EU.

It’s a lot of money by anyone’s standards.

The concept of responsible innovation that I have been writing about in this series (RI) has been adopted by the EU in a slightly changed format. The EU use the term Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in all of their documents, as they are funding research and innovation and not just innovation. The RRI concept has been applied to all of the recent blocks of funding to a different degree, over time it has developed and become ever more important, to the point that today it is a ‘cross cutting issue’.

That means that anyone applying for funding has to address the issue of responsibility within the research project.

What the EU are looking to do is to steer research by funding those projects that address what they call the ‘grand societal challenges’ faced by the European population. These challenges are as follows:

  • Health, demographic change and wellbeing;
  • Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the Bioeconomy;
  • Secure, clean and efficient energy;
  • Smart, green and integrated transport;
  • Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials;
  • Europe in a changing world – inclusive, innovative and reflective societies;
  • Secure societies – protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.

All of the contents within these challenges are spelt out on the EU website here, so for example the food security challenge explanation begins with:

A transition is needed towards an optimal and renewable use of biological resources and towards sustainable primary production and processing systems. These systems will need to produce more food, fibre and other bio-based products with minimised inputs, environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions, and with enhanced ecosystem services, zero waste and adequate societal value.

Each challenge has a short description like this one above and then a more in depth explanation of the goals and aims and an extensive workplan.

So all of the above should be done while following an RRI approach, so what might that be?

From another section of the website:

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) implies that societal actors (researchers, citizens, policy makers, business, third sector organisations, etc.) work together during the whole research and innovation process in order to better align both the process and its outcomes with the values, needs and expectations of society.

In practice, RRI is implemented as a package that includes multi-actor and public engagement in research and innovation, enabling easier access to scientific results, the take up of gender and ethics in the research and innovation content and process, and formal and informal science education.

All done via actions on thematic elements of RRI (public engagement, open access, gender, ethics, science education), and via integrated actions that for example promote institutional change, to foster the uptake of the RRI approach by stakeholders and institutions.

This really is a concerted effort carried out on a massive scale, with the aim of steering the research and innovation process via a funding policy based on objectives.

In my next post I will describe some of the projects that have been funded so we can see what this actually looks like on the ground.