hoRRIzon 3.0 mid-point

One of the objectives of introducing Horizon’s cross cutting theme was to stock check our own processes and practices around Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), to energise them with new thinking and establish a common evaluation methodology partnering ORBIT for RRI impact.  Through a series of RRI focused projects – hoRRIzon 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 and in collaboration with colleagues from the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) RRI Theme, we have been exploring approaches and tools to support Responsible Innovation.

The development of Responsible Innovation ‘Prompt and Practice’ cards (RI Cards), now available both in a physical format and as an online resource have proved a useful and popular tool to encourage discussion on RRI, identify risks and strengths and support reflection.  Our earlier blog highlighted some of the reach and impact of these cards. They have since been used by the Doctoral Training Centre, Quantum Institute and Computer Science at the University of Oxford, Ernest Young and supported a webinar about RRI hosted by the Athens National Centre for Social Sciences. In addition, the RI cards have now also been adopted by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for inclusion within an open-source RRI resource they are keen to make available to research communities.

One area we have been focussing on is the development of a central web-based resource for people seeking to find out more about RRI tools, access them and apply them within their own projects. With the TAS Hub we developed an initial mini-site to support the RRI and to showcase the RI ‘Prompt and Practice’ Cards. We have subsequently been supporting the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) cards, which were originally developed through funding from the EPSRC Connected Everything Network. An updated version (1.1) of the cards has corrected typographical errors, contains guide cards and labels with themes as well as categories – all important tweaks to improve them in use. We plan to print physical sets of these cards shortly and v1.1 will be added to the online Cardographer app to make them available online. We have also arranged to produce some short videos to act as an introduction and guide to the cards. Building on this example with the EDI cards, we aim to develop similar guides and resources related to other card decks, for example the Moral-IT cards (developed in an earlier project led by Dr Lachlan Urquhart) to bring information on cards developed and used by Horizon into a single place.

Evaluation of our cross-cutting theme activity is a key part of hoRRIzon 3.0 and we have introduced Storytelling and Responsible Innovation workshops to explore what RRI means to different people and how researchers carry out their activities in a responsible way, especially with digital and digital/physical technologies.  Additionally, we plan to lead three Round Table events to discuss how TAS projects have addressed legal issues and the relation between regulation and the RRI process: Storytelling Poster

Finally, we are looking forward to attending the TAS Showcase in March to disseminate our RRI tools and resources and to deliver a plenary session on RRI and EDI.

Written by Hazel Sayers, Virginia Portillo and Peter Craigon

Tags: Cardographer, Dr Lachlan Urquhart, EDI, EPSRC, hoRRIzon, hoRRIzon 2.0, Moral IT cards, ORBIT, RRI, Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) Hub