Mapping and Benchmarking of trends, barriers to and drivers of RRI and Open Science

In July 2018, the FIT4RRI Work Package 1 “Mapping and benchmarking” completed its journey. Its aim was to develop a comprehensive picture influences on RRI and Open Science: On the one hand focusing on the major trends, barriers to and drivers of  Responsible Research & Innovation and Open Science and, on the other hand, the most relevant approaches aimed at embedding RRI and Open Science in research organisations.

As a result, the project developed recommendations and orientations to support the implementation of four co-creation experiments planned for the second strand of the project.

Analysing RRI and Open Science trends, barriers and drivers

First of all, the team conducted an extensive literature review, addressing four main issues:

• how science is changing in the context of the wider transformations affecting society in late modernity;
• how these changes influence science-society relations and the mechanisms of production of scientific knowledge;
• how RRI has been interpreted and to what extent it addresses these changes;
• which barriers and drivers arise in the implementation of RRI.

FIT4RRI presents the outputs in a Report which also provides a first guidance for the experiments.

Benchmarking Exercise – RRI experiences

Secondly, the project initiated a benchmarking process on RRI-oriented experiences in Europe. The process entails the building up of database of 302 experiences and an in-depth analysis of 18 of them, selected on the basis of a set of quality criteria.

Further, this process led to set up a 9-item typology of RRI governance settings (i.e., approaches for institutionally embedding RRI in research organisations) and to identify 36 RRI-oriented benchmarks (i.e., effective and transferable practices which can be used to favouring the implementation of RRI and Open Science). The outputs of this process are the subject of a specific Benchmarking Report, delivered in June 2017.

Summary Report

Consequently, the Summary Report of the work package was drafted, which includes more structured orientations and recommendations for the co-creation experiments.

In addition to the summary report, FIT4RRI created a short document to summarize the main results of the literature review. The PDF file is available for download at Zenodo.

Finally, the results of the work package have been presented in Brussels on 16 and 17 October 2018 at the external review with the European Commission, at the meeting with the FIT4RRI advisory board and at the general assembly of all project partners. In addition, these results will provide the basis for developing a set of Guidelines on governance settings, which will be developed under WP5 between January and August 2019.