RRI Tools is a flagship project funded by the European Commission (EC) under the 7th Framework Program. RRI Tools was set up to foster the development of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) across Europe by means of an ambitious training, advocacy, and dissemination programme. It´s wide European coverage was possible due to the exceptionally large multidisciplinary consortium of RRI Tools, consisting of 26 partner institutions active in 30 countries from all over Europe and led by "la Caixa" Foundation.

The main outcome of the project was the development of an interactive digital platform - the RRI Toolkit - gathering a wealth of resources to help stakeholders across Europe in developing their understanding of, and capacity to put RRI into practice. Designed as an interactive, participatory Toolkit, it is open to the community, so that every actor can showcase their own practices and resources and get inspired by those of others. 

The project officially ended in December 2016, and since then, the project´s coordinator - “la Caixa” Foundation - has brought its commitment to keep the RRI Toolkit updated and running and it´s dissemination channels active beyond expected. 

The RRI Toolkit has become a popular resource for the R&I community in Europe, and beyond. The platform has a loyal community of users that continuously visits and uses it as a proficient and trustworthy repository. In social media, being one of the most followed projects in its field, the RRI Tools channels have brought together a considerable number of followers and community of action. Along these years we improved and expanded contents of the platform. Many new resources have been uploaded into the resource repository and many fruitful collaborations with different EU projects and other international initiatives have taken place. 

Now with the arrival of the 9th Framework Programme – Horizon Europe (2021-2027), RRI Tools is entering into a new phase. The platform will be kept up and running, but we will reduce its activity and interactive features.

After a decade of working on Responsible Research and Innovation we endorse many of the reflections recently made by Owen, von Schomberg and MacNagthen [An unfinished journey? Reflections on a decade of responsible research and innovation. Journal of Responsible Innovation, 2021]: RRI “has played its part in helping us to understand, reflect on and open up those futures being created by science, technology and innovation, and how we can take responsibility for those futures as a society”[…] “RRI remains important and necessary” for helping “society to get better at the conversation between today and tomorrow”.

We are glad that RRI Tools and the RRI Toolkit contributed to these debates and efforts to build a more responsible and open science system by providing a site of praxis and inspiration. It is now time for Horizon Europe new projects to take the lead. 

Our work and commitment with RRI will continue, in connection to other initiatives and projects. Our warmest thanks to all of you, dear users, supporters, and contributors to the RRI Toolkit. Its success is also yours!

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The RRI Tools coordination team