Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), a cross-cutting issue in Horizon2020, is about bringing around the table all research and innovation stakeholders (researchers, industrialists, policy-makers, education community, civil society organizations, citizens…). An umbrella-term covering science in relation with ethics, gender equality, governance, open access, and education, RRI can also be tackled in terms of optimal research and innovation processes and their desirable outcomes for society.

At RRI Tools we are building an RRI Toolkit to make RRI happen in real life. We are 26 Consortium members and 19 National Hubs, covering 30 different countries in the European Research Area, dedicated to create this RRI Toolkit with the participation of research and innovation stakeholders. We are now in Month 11 of the project, and very important milestones have been reached: 

•    In the very first months of 2014, we came up with a first working definition of RRI that encompasses RRI key topics, processes, and outcomes, as outlined in this figure.
 

•    In order to open up this reflection to a wider range of participants, 26 stakeholder consultation workshops have been held by the RRI Hubs during this fall. Hundreds of stakeholders of 30 European countries have gathered to survey the needs and constraints they may have towards responsible research and innovation, and to collect the RRI best practices they are aware of.