December 14, 2018

Social Lab 4: Research Infrastructures, including e-Infrastructures

What is a Social Lab?

Description

Horizon 2020 pillar: Excellent Science

Social Lab 4 “Research Infrastructure” gathered stakeholders from 9 different European countries to collaboratively develop and implement pilot activities. The stakeholders had backgrounds in research funding and policy, were researchers or worked within a research infrastructure.Collectively, this group wanted to address research infrastructures on different levels through targeted pilot actions. On the one hand the participants intensively focused on implementing RRI at the policy level, on the other hand they decided to pursue an RRI approach when improving existing research infrastructures.

Social Lab workshops

Workshop 1

Date: 14-15 May 2018

Place: Vienna, Austria

12 participants

Description of the workshop

Workshop 2

Date: 10 & 11 April 2019

Venue: Vienna, Austria

Description of the workshop

Workshop 3

Date: 24 & 25 October 2019

Description of the workshop

Pilot actions

Pilot Action 1: Disseminating RRI in the Research and Innovation Community of the Green Village at Delft University of Technology

The main objective of this pilot action is to disseminate and share knowledge of the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles within a highly innovative research Community, the Green Village at the University of Delft, in order to make RRI a principle guiding the way innovations can be developed, tested and demonstrated in their experimental real-life setting.

The focus in this Initiative is on societal embracement (engagement), one of the four cornerstones of the Green Village mission in relation to ethics, gender equality and open access and governance. Two workshops on analyzing and implementing the RRI framework in an experimental innovative technical research community. Workshop II itntroduces RRI principles to the Green Village and elaborates project-specific RRI approaches, Workshop II evaluates the implementation of RRI since Workshop I. Guidelines for a practical use of the RRI principles within small extremely innovative scientific communities with multi stakeholders interests will be set up.

Pilot Action 2: Co-creation process in natural history museum

The Natural History Museum in Vienna as one of the largest non-university research institutions in Austria creates a social lab. The museum aims at getting more inclusive and following an RRI approach in future initiatives. This multi-stakeholder social lab will strengthen RRI within the institution at a strategic level, create new alliances between science and society and will also intensify internal communication and awareness raising processes on teh topic within the museum.

Pilot Action 3: Revision of Open Access Charta

The group decided to revise the European Charter for Access to Reserach Infrastructures – Principles and Guidelines for Access and Related Services (EC, 2016) according to RRI principles, as they are not represented in there yet. To do so, a small team of 5 people works together, the host is from a funding agency. They are analyzing the Charta and develop reports on their results. Thus, the main aim is to integrate RRI in teh open access Charta.

Managers and facilitators

Social Lab Manager: Ilse Marschalek, projectmanager and researcher at the Center for Social Innovation, Vienna, Austria.

Social Lab Manager Assistants: Elisabeth Unterfrauner, Lisa Marie Seebacher and Margit Hofer, researchers at the Center for Social Innovation,Vienna, Austria.

Social Lab Facilitator: Maria Schrammel, project manager and researcher at the Center for Social Innovation, Vienna,Austria.