The Societal Readiness Thinking Tool – Thinking about societal readiness of research

Organisers: Ingeborg MeijerNiels Mejlgaard
Speakers: Mathias Wullum NielsenMichael BernsteinTung Tung ChanStefan de Jong, André Brasil

The Societal Readiness Thinking Tool (www.thinkingtool.eu) was developed in the context of the NewHoRRIzon project. It provides a mechanism for maturing the societal readiness of a research project by enabling users to reflect carefully about the societal appropriateness of their work at critical stages of the project life cycle. The tool stimulates reflection and critical thinking and provides a user-friendly platform for iteratively addressing issues of responsibility in the context of a research project. It is tailored around procedural dimensions (anticipate, reflect, include, respond) and key topics (ethics, gender, engagement, science education, open access) relating to responsible research and innovation, and it offers a range of ‘provocative’ questions for users to engage with. 

The Societal Readiness Thinking Tool is a rather simple and practical vehicle for engaging with RRI in a project context, and a significant number of research projects have already started using the tool. This session will present the conceptual work, design concerns, and quality assurance procedures behind the core features of the tool. The format for the session is a brief introduction to the Societal Readiness Thinking Tool and its location in the NewHoRRIzon RRI Exhibition, followed by brief interviews with the people involved in the development and validation of the tool.