contributions of research and innovation – a guide for HEFRCs. ETHNA System Project – Deliverable 3.2
SUMMARY ✎
How can R&I respond to societal needs?
This report provides guidance to Higher Education, Funding and Research Centres (HEFRCs) on how to keep an updated overview of society's values, needs and expectations to which R&I may respond to build trust between science and society and address the challenges of our time.
Based on stakeholder statements and perspectives gathered through literature reviews, surveys and deliberative workshops, this guide describes the potential societal contributions of R&I. You will get answers to the question of how organisations can best identify societal needs in order to address today’s most pressing demands.
The guide highlights the different stakeholder viewpoints, draws on key findings from other EU-funded projects such as EURAXESS, BOHEMIA or PE2020 and consults a variety of networks such as SIS.net, ECsite, EUSEA, GenPORT, Scientix, EUCYS, RRI Tools, ENRIO, ENERI, EURAXESS. Following the success story of “The European Charter for Researchers” and “The Code of Conduct for Recruitment”, which address the need for a consolidated and structured EU research policy, you will get inspiration and motivation to create an ETHNA System Code of Ethics and Good Practices (CEGP).
With respect to RRI principles and examples of good practice, you will be able to adapt your organisation’s needs assessment to the RRI key areas research integrity, gender perspective, public engagement and open access. Focusing on three methods for monitoring societal values, needs and expectations, you will become familiar with affordable secondary research activities and foresight exercises that you can use in this process. Methodological examples will illustrate how you can use Eurobarometer, research funding programmes and calls, as well as foresight exercises to engage in a dialogue on urgent needs, e.g., based on innovative breakthroughs. Finally, the last chapter gives you an insight into how to best use the resources from this guide to reflect on society’s most pressing needs in deliberative stakeholder workshops.
If you are interested in discovering what you can do to continuously monitor and respond to societal needs when promoting R&I at your organisation, this guide will help you to
- › make use of the benefits of R&I to find answers to the questions of our time
- › strive for improvement based on success stories
- › follow good practice to monitor the potential societal contributions of R&I
- › use secondary research and foresight exercises to customise your needs assessment
- › draw on stakeholders’ perspectives on the most pressing needs.
Table of content:
- List of abbreviations
- What this guide is about and how you can use it
- Why it is important to explore the potential societal contributions of R&I
- Monitoring and responding to societal needs when promoting R&I
- How to address the needs of HEFRCs with a Code of Ethics and Good Practice
- The need for a consolidated and structured research policy – “The European Charter for Researchers” and “The Code of Conduct for Recruitment”
- How to customise your needs assessment by incorporating good practices
- Examples of good practice from four RRI key areas
- Three Methods for identifying societal needs to which research may respond
- How to use Eurobarometer?
- How to use research funding programmes and calls?
- How to use foresight approaches?
- Making foresight exercises with relevant stakeholders a success
- What can foresight look like? – Brainstorming
- What comes next? Addressing societal needs in deliberative stakeholder workshops
- References
- List of links
- List of figures