EPSRC (2013), Framework for Responsible Innovation
The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is committed to develop and promote Responsible Innovation. This site reaffirms its commitment and sets out its expectations for the researchers it funds and its research organisations.
Responsible Innovation is a process that seeks to promote creativity and opportunities for science and innovation that are socially desirable and undertaken in the public interest. Responsible Innovation acknowledges that innovation can raise questions and dilemmas, is often ambiguous in terms of purposes and motivations, and unpredictable in terms of impacts, beneficial or otherwise. Responsible Innovation creates spaces and processes to explore these aspects of innovation in an open, inclusive and timely way. This is a collective responsibility, where funders, researchers, stakeholders and the public all have an important role to play. It includes, but goes beyond, considerations of risk and regulation, important though these are.