In these last few years, the European Commission has promoting a peculiar approach to research and innovation which stresses the importance for all social actors (citizens, policy makers, researchers, enterprises, civil society organizations, educators, third sector) to come to work together with the common objective to “align research and innovation processes and results with the values, the needs and aspirations of society”. Such an approach has been defined “Responsible Research and Innovation” (RRI).
RRI embraces 7 keys of research and innovation: public engagement, social justice, scientific education, gender, ethics, open access and governance. Recently, the EU funded project named RRI Tools has identified some process requirements of RRI, such as reflexivity, anticipation, responsiveness, inclusion. Those are the crucial elements of any social intervention aiming at producing change that are therefore central for those who want to act responsibly in order to produce social change.
