November 30, 2018

Social Lab 10: Smart, Green and Integrated Transport

What is a Social Lab?

Description

Horizon 2020 pillar: Societal Challenges

Social Lab 10 “Smart, Green and Integrated (SGI) Transport” brings together stakeholders from civil society, industry, policy, and research to debate about prevalent challenges of research in the sector and to experiment with change regarding the implementation of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) on national and European levels.

Social Lab workshops

Workshop 1

Date: 23-24 May 2018

Place: Vienna, Austria

15 participants

Presentation of the workshop

Worshop 2

Date: 7 & 8 March 2019

Venue: Prague, Czech Republic

Description of the workshop

Workshop 3

Date: 11 & 12 December 2019

Venue: Vienna, Austria

Description of the workshop

Pilot actions

Pilot Action 1: Workshop on RRI and Stakeholder engagement (Transport)

Within this pilot action, a variety of different stakeholders exchange experiences on Public Engagement and ideate about the benefit of inclusive approaches in relation to contemporary challenges within the sector. While actors within the transport sector are often times seeking for technocratic top-down-solutions, the aim of the pilot is a change in the thinking of experts, leading to more openness in their approaches. This means that the participants are (potential) change-makers and actors experienced in participatory approaches. Experts will therefore get insights in why increased societal engagement is beneficial and on how to put these approaches into practice.

Pilot Action 2: Consensus conference

The pilot of the mobalance Consensus Conference aimed for a discussion in which different stakeholders bring in their perspectives in relation to the provided expert knowledge. This allowed for dynamic and diverging assessments of the implications this knowledge contained and enabled the participants to challenge the perspectives of the experts, showing that there are ‘realities’ beyond their lines of thinking and approaches. The event therefore contributed to Science Education/Science Literacy and Open Access, as it opened up the internal processes of scientific approaches for the participants and made the experts take into account considerations that were beyond the scope of their project. After SL workshop 2: The aim is to reach out with the results/idea – a final event will happen at the 11th of September, incporating citizen science approaches.

Pilot Action 3: Research goes to Street

This pilot action aims at realizing a citizen-led walking conversation in Madrid. The participating experts gain insights in the perspectives of citizens, while citizens are enabled to speak for themselves, rather than being represented. This opens up the possibility to reflect upon the societal embeddedness of scientific processes, while simultaneously identifying citizens’ needs and views. The pilot addresses Public Engagement and can diminish the gap between experts and society, both in terms of problem-perceptions and language. The focus of the pilot action is to strengthen civil societal actors, as this stakeholder group is usually either underrepresented or their input is reduced to users. After SL workshop 2: The aim is to either re-do the event a second time or to reverse the event: “Street goes to Research” – to invite citizens into the Technical University of Madrid. Due to scheduling issues, the event got postponed.

Pilot Action 4: GenVoice

The aim is to integrate unheard voices (future generations) into R&I processes. The PA is planned for October: Pupils in the city of Zilina will engage in experimenting with Urban Living Lab approaches at their school.

Managers and facilitators

Social Lab Manager: Robert Braun, senior researcher of the Techno-Science and Societal Transformation research group at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Austria.

Social Lab Assistant: Matthias Allinger, research assistant of the Techno-Science and Societal Transformation research group at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Austria.

Social Lab Facilitator: Elisabeth Frankus, senior researcher of the Techno-Science and Societal Transformation research group at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Austria.