Virtual Summit on the Future of Socially Responsible Research & Innovation

By Graham UCC on March 30, 2021

The RRING project, Responsible Research and Innovation Networked Globally, funded by the European Commission under its Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, is now nearing completion.

Over the past year it has conducted a number of activities to increase understanding on how socially responsible research and innovation is viewed across the globe and develop recommendations for improving this in line with the 2017 global agreement called the Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers (RSSR).

The RRING summit will bring together the projects leading proponents and participants over two days to highlight, discuss and expand upon the learning and insights gained from the communities collective activities.

The summit will include participants from UNESCO, the United Nations, Future Earth, PRIA and ICORSA (among others). Registration for the summit is free.

RRING activities have shown that better collaboration among all science and technology stakeholders is needed for an advocacy directed toward influencing public policy and decision-making by policymakers to improve aspects such as public engagement, open access, gender, ethics, and science education and to allow science and technology to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

To support science and technology stakeholders and empower them with the tools to achieve ever more responsibility and freedom in research and innovation, RRING has been developing recommendations for the development of competitive advantage based on RRI and conducting trials with countries supporting them in measuring progress on the priority areas of the Recommendation on Science.

RRING is now evolving beyond the project itself to become an open and welcoming community, spreading and sharing the ideas of responsible research and innovation. Its current members span over 60 countries. They share a common vision to learn from, share and connect outstanding research practices all over the world to improve the quality and impact of scientific research on a global level.

Through its training, knowledge sharing and networking activities that have already begun, the RRING community will not only support the national assessment and reporting processes that examine the norms and standards associated with the RSSR, but will also enable practice and knowledge exchanges with scientific communities globally, to seek ways to improve, apply and develop specially-designed tools.

For those interested in joining the RRING Community, you can register at: https://rring.eu/community/.