RRI Tools

TechEthos aims to reinforce the pivotal role of the European Union as an ethics trailblazer in the area of new and emerging technologies. Such technologies bring with them new ethical challenges and societal consequences that need to be addressed.

Following a horizon scan of emerging technologies with high socio-economic impacts, based on clear indicators and with the contribution of experts from different fields, three technology families were identified as the focus of the project. They concern fundamental relationships between technology and the planet, the digital world and the human body respectively: 

1. Climate Engineering,
2. Digital Extended Reality
3. Neurotechnologies. 

TechEthos t will develop guidance to ensure the highest ethical standards at the EU and international levels by:

• Identifying and analysing the ethical issues raised by the three technology families
• Explorating the views and attitudes held by different stakeholders - the research community, industry, the public - towards the ethical implications of those technologies, using various tools such as scenarios and media analysis
• Developing /refining/extending (as desirable and applicable to the selected technologies) existing/proposed ethics frameworks, operational guidelines or Codes (e.g., developed in SIENNA, SHERPA, PANELFIT, SATORI and other projects) to enable the effective ethics governance of the technologies. 
• Exploring and compareing the policy, legal and procedural frameworks to assess the possible need for dedicated legislation at the EU-level; and  
• Developing operational guidelines to ensure “ethics by design” and support the work of the research community, research ethics committees and integrity bodies

To do so, TechEthos will engage with researchers and innovators, research ethics committees (RECs), research integrity (RI) bodies, civil society organisations (CSOs), policy-makers and the public, to while reconcile their needs and concerns. 

In addition to a clear focus on the RRI key of Ethics, public engagement is key to the project: science museums and centers involved will play a crucial role in understanding and further developing societal perspectives through a programme of public engagement events, in-depth dialogues, exhibitions and analyses. They will develop tools to capture and develop societal awareness on new and emerging technologies and will engage their publics, including vulnerable groups, in exploratory events and in-depth dialogues, as well as develop light exhibitions and displays on these topics, and explore the media landscape in their countries on the selected technologies. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can download the project factssheet from here