2.1.4. Transdisciplinary Methodology and Social Responsibility: “Responsible Innovation and Science”

Go to the full version of the original text on Methodologies for Interdisciplinary Research by Stella Veciana.

At the European level, the idea of social responsibility applied to science is currently discussed under the concept of “responsible innovation and science”, particularly in the framework of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. In scientific research, “responsibility” originally referred to the professional ethics of scientists in regard to the accuracy of their results, to guaranteeing the safety of those directly affected by their studies, and to the management of the public funds made available to them. Now, however, responsible science also refers to the social consequences of research and of the publication or results: this includes destructive, unpredictable repercussions, the lack of control, and conflicts with the society’s values, as in the case of genetic engineering for example.

There are currently different notions of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). The RRI Tools Project funded under the Framework Programme FP7 aims to develop a set of digital resources for the community of practice. This project understands RRI as “a shift in responsibility: the shift from thinking in terms of individualist and consequentialist notions of responsibility to thinking in terms of collective and distributed responsibility and processes.” This means that it “specifies both outcomes and process requirements of the responsible research and innovation process.” This protocol suggests taking into account the methods developed by the project, including its repercussions, as a commitment to create the appropriate conditions for a responsible action process. At the same time, it raises questions about how, from what context, and who (co-)decides on the distribution of responsibility.